An amazing chance find on a recent visit to Northern Spain. Who knew that Antonio Gaudi’s first house was built in Comillas, a lovely seaside town, a place once favoured by the Spanish royal family? Most people of course know Gaudi’s Barcelona works, particularly the Sagrada Familia Basilica, which I shamefully admit I’ve yet to [...]
Prefabs were supposed to be a short-term fix to the housing crisis after the second world war, a life of around 10 years until housing could be more permanently sorted. They needed to be constructed rapidly, and although hard to heat and cold in the winter, some with asbestos and other health and safety concerns, [...]
Beamish could easily be a sentimental view of a past golden age – but refreshingly, it isn’t. Beamish is one of those places that once you hear about, you keep hearing about. It’s located near Durham and as such is founded around the area’s industrial development and coal mining past. The founder Frank Atkinson wanted [...]
Sometimes it’s hard to know what stimulates an interest in something for us, but for me in my childhood I am also certain that what introduced me to canals was not just living near to the Grand Union Canal and watching the locks fill and empty, but also the Ladybird book: The Story of Our [...]
