Great Fire of London

31 October 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Architecture, London Reading Time:  29 minutes

Monument to the Great Fire of London and Pudding Lane © flickr.com - It's No Game/cc-by-2.0

Monument to the Great Fire of London and Pudding Lane © flickr.com – It’s No Game/cc-by-2.0

The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past the wall to the west. The death toll is generally thought to have been relatively small, although some historians have challenged this belief.   read more…

Embassy of the United States in London

3 October 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Architecture, London Reading Time:  7 minutes

© Curran2/cc-by-sa-4.0

© Curran2/cc-by-sa-4.0

The Embassy of the United States of America in London is the diplomatic mission of the United States in the United Kingdom. It is located in Nine Elms and is the largest American embassy in Western Europe and the focal point for events relating to the United States held in the United Kingdom. From an architectural point of view, the embassy is interesting because, among other things, aspects of medieval castle building came into play here, including a moat. Ground was broken on 13 November 2013, and the building opened to the public on 13 December 2017.   read more…

Lambeth Palace in London

1 October 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, House of the Month, London Reading Time:  10 minutes

Lambeth Palace from the herb garden © geograph.org.uk - Marathon/cc-by-sa-2.0

Lambeth Palace from the herb garden © geograph.org.uk – Marathon/cc-by-sa-2.0

Lambeth Palace is the official London residence of the archbishop of Canterbury. It is situated in north Lambeth, London, on the south bank of the River Thames, 400 yards (370 metres) south-east of the Palace of Westminster, which houses Parliament, on the opposite bank.   read more…

Windsor Castle

18 September 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  7 minutes

© Diliff/cc-by-2.5

© Diliff/cc-by-2.5

Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history.   read more…

Bradford-on-Avon in Wiltshire

10 September 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  4 minutes

Former town hall, today the Roman Catholic Church of St Thomas More © geograph.org.uk - Humphrey Bolton/cc-by-sa-2.0

Former town hall, today the Roman Catholic Church of St Thomas More
© geograph.org.uk – Humphrey Bolton/cc-by-sa-2.0

Bradford-on-Avon (sometimes Bradford on Avon or Bradford upon Avon) is a town and civil parish in west Wiltshire, England, near the border with Somerset, which had a population of 10,405 at the 2021 census. The town’s canal, historic buildings, shops, pubs and restaurants make it popular with tourists.   read more…

University of Manchester

2 September 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Universities, Colleges, Academies Reading Time:  7 minutes

Whitworth Hall © Michael D Beckwith

Whitworth Hall © Michael D Beckwith

The University of Manchester is a public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester City Centre on Oxford Road. The university owns and operates major cultural assets such as the Manchester Museum, The Whitworth art gallery, the John Rylands Library, the Tabley House Collection and the Jodrell Bank Observatory – a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The University of Manchester is considered a red brick university, a product of the civic university movement of the late 19th century. The current University of Manchester was formed in 2004 following the merger of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) and the Victoria University of Manchester. This followed a century of the two institutions working closely with one another.   read more…

University of St Andrews in Scotland

1 September 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Universities, Colleges, Academies Reading Time:  6 minutes

© Holger Uwe Schmitt/cc-by-sa-4.0

© Holger Uwe Schmitt/cc-by-sa-4.0

The University of St Andrews (Scots: University o St Andras; Scottish Gaelic: Oilthigh Chill Rìmhinn; abbreviated as St And, from the Latin: Sancti Andreae, in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, following the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the third-oldest university in the English-speaking world. St Andrews was founded in 1413 when the Avignon Antipope Benedict XIII issued a papal bull to a small founding group of Augustinian clergy. Along with the universities of Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Edinburgh, St Andrews was part of the Scottish Enlightenment during the 18th century.   read more…

Theme Week Outer Hebrides – Lewis and Harris

26 August 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  10 minutes

Stornoway © PaulT (Gunther Tschuch)/cc-by-sa-4.0

Stornoway © PaulT (Gunther Tschuch)/cc-by-sa-4.0

Lewis and Harris (Scottish Gaelic: Leòdhas agus Na Hearadh; Scots: Lewis an Harris), or Lewis with Harris, is a single Scottish island in the Outer Hebrides, divided by mountains. It is the largest island in Scotland and the third largest in the British Isles, after Great Britain and the island of Ireland, with an area of 841 square miles (2,178 km²), which is approximately 1% of the area of Great Britain. The northern two-thirds is called [the Isle of] Lewis and the southern third [the Isle of] Harris; each is referred to as if it were a separate island and there are many cultural and linguistic differences between the two. The main town of the island and the most important town in the Outer Hebrides is Stornoway.   read more…

Theme Week Outer Hebrides – Benbecula

25 August 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  8 minutes

Benbecula Beach © geograph.org.uk - Richard Webb/cc-by-sa-2.0

Benbecula Beach © geograph.org.uk – Richard Webb/cc-by-sa-2.0

Benbecula (Scottish Gaelic: Beinn nam Fadhla or Beinn na Faoghla) is an island of the Outer Hebrides in the Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of Scotland. In the 2011 census, it had a resident population of 1,283 with a sizable percentage of Roman Catholics. It is in a zone administered by Comhairle nan Eilean Siar or the Western Isles Council. The island is about 12 kilometres (7 miles) from west to east and a similar distance from north to south. It lies between the islands of North Uist and South Uist and is connected to both by road causeways. Benbecula’s main settlement and administrative centre is Balivanich (Scottish Gaelic: Baile a’ Mhanaich, meaning “Town of the Monk”).   read more…

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