Belsize House was, according to historical accounts, a notorious entertainment venue. Just two years after it opened as a pleasure garden in what is now Belsize Park, a 1722 satirical ballad described the “scandalous, Lew’d House” where in amongst rioting and gaming visitors could eat, drink and dance, […]
Take a trip to the World’s End pub on a Saturday night and the place is often packed. It’s a sprawling, barn-like drinking establishment, with a vast island bar in the main room, yet it can still be hard to find a spot to stand as locals and […]
Peckham Rye common is one of southeast London’s most popular expanses of greenery. Some play organised games on the marked out sports pitches, joggers run round the edge of the field and families enjoy picnics on the grass when the weather allows. One of my favourite London cafes […]
With decades of construction and re-construction, Clerkenwell’s Italian influences are fast disappearing. But Little Italy is not completely gone as the continued presence of the magnificent St Peter’s, which hails from 1863, and a number of Italian businesses reminds us. The church on Clerkenwell Road was the first […]
Archway in north London seems at first glance an unlikely place for gentrification. When you leave the Northern line Tube station and emerge in the grotty 1960s shopping precinct, it is late night fried chicken takeaways and pound shops that greet you. But some it seems have faith […]
“For the wind is in the palm trees, an’ the temple-bells they say: ‘Come back you British soldier, come you back to Mandalay!’” Rudyard Kipling’s poem ‘Mandalay’ is probably one of the most famous things ever written about Burma, but some will be disappointed to know that he […]
Western mass tourism may be in its infancy for Burma, but a well-trodden route is quickly emerging. After exploring Yangon – the country’s biggest city – for a couple of days many head to Bagan for its spectacular Buddhist temples, then the former royal capital of Mandalay for […]
