Innholdsfortegnelse for December/January 2019 i Discover Britain

There is something delightful about people’s excitement when an old-fashioned British steam train pulls into a station. One toot of the whistle can generate squeals from children and adults alike. Nostalgia plays a part for some, reminding them of childhood trips to the seaside. Others seem attracted by the romance of the golden era of rail travel. Younger visitors are enthralled to see a real-life Thomas the Tank Engine – the children’s story adapted for TV with a voiceover by The Beatles’ Ringo Starr. Whatever the reason, a trip on a heritage railway offers a perfect antidote to the stresses of modern-day travel. You buy a ticket and climb aboard, before slowly chugging away into the distance. And where better to do this than in Yorkshire, the setting for another…

On the last Tuesday of January the streets of Lerwick in Shetland come alive with Vikings parading down the cobblestones, blazing torches held aloft, lighting the way through the dark streets. A vast longship is marched through the town before being set alight in a glorious inferno. Welcome to the Up Helly Aa festival, the UK’s most northern fire festival and a pagan celebration in the midst of our deepest winter. It began in the 1880s, and each year draws thousands of locals and visitors alike to this remote archipelago for one day a year (the next festival will be on 29 January 2019). Shetland is so proud of its Norse connections that it’s possible to celebrate Viking culture, and much more besides, all year round here. On the last…

A BIGGER SPLASH AT WESTMINSTER A new stained-glass window designed by David Hockney has been installed at Westminster Abbey to commemorate the reign of the Queen. The legendary Yorkshire artist [pictured] created the colourful design on his iPad. It pays tribute to his home county, as it both features local hawthorn blossom and was crafted by York’s Barley Studio. The Queen’s Window was installed in the north transept of the Abbey, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site and Britain’s official coronation church. On 2 October, Hockney attended a special service by The Very Reverend Dr John Hall, Dean of Westminster, who revealed that the artist had been specifically commissioned to produce “a country scene to honour someone we know to be a lover of the countryside”. www.westminster-abbey.org…

While you can often identify a photo of a London street via one of its many iconic buildings or landmarks, by far the easiest way to tell if you are in the British capital is through the appearance of two things: a black taxi cab and a red double-decker bus. Over the last century these two vehicles have become both internationally renowned symbols of the city and also staples of daily life – more than 2.24 billion passenger journeys were made on London buses in the last year alone. The history of both vehicles has a long tailback. Black cabs are often referred to as Hackney carriages, a name which points to the origins of the service. In the early 17th century, Hackney was not the hip corner of East…

TOP TIP DERBYSHIRE DALES The Peak District may be the largest national park in the English Midlands, but it is hard to escape the sense that descriptions of the landscape sound like they belong in an unpublished JRR Tolkien novel. Like a topographical battle between good and evil, VisitEngland talks of “two contrasting personalities” – the area is split between the wilder moors of the Dark Peak to the north and the lush green gorges of the White Peak to the south. The Derbyshire Dales is officially a local government district that encompasses much of the White Peak territory, as well as a number of market towns on the outskirts of Derby. It stretches right up to the villages of Hathersage, which contains the grave of Little John, one of…

A time for Piece Do you ever print reader tips in your magazine? My wife and I were visiting family in Leeds recently and made a detour to Halifax – oh my, what a lovely surprise! The architecture of the Piece Hall is astonishing, very open and relaxing, and the town has so many museums and attractions. To think we’d lived nearby and never stopped there before. David Jenkins, Manchester We always welcome recommendations from our readers, David. Halifax is on our list of places to explore in 2019 too, so look out for a full feature soon. Raven mad Little did I know the impact that issue 203 would create in my life. Charlotte Hogarth-Jones’ informative article Wild City, and the raven master featured in it, opened up a…

At 23 miles long, Loch Lomond is the largest stretch of inland water in the United Kingdom, and the second largest by water volume, second only to its rather more famous sister, Loch Ness. The loch spans three counties and begins just 14 miles northwest of Glasgow, making its unique landscape, location, history and heritage a draw for visitors worldwide. Its location within the wider Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park also gives it an exceptional claim to be one of the most protected areas in the British Isles. “There are more species of animals and plants in the southern Loch Lomond area than anywhere else in Britain,” says the park’s head ranger, Chris Calvey. This is down to the fact that the Loch sits on the boundary between…

London’s underground rail network – the Tube – has been an intrinsic part of daily life for millions of commuters since it first opened in 1863. Yet while many of the 1.37 billion journeys taken each year along the 250-mile network have a mundane purpose, this is not to say the Tube is a boring place to be – all human life is here. Each line has its own distinctive colour and personality, while everyone from monarchs to movie stars has graced the network at some point. The Tube changes with the times too. Whether offering shelter to patients during the Blitz or forging new links with outer suburbs as the city expands further, the network has grown and adapted – no mean feat when you are several hundred feet…

Queen of the World by Robert Hardman Purporting to tell the real story behind Netflix series The Crown, this biography of Elizabeth II places her achievements into vivid context. The exhaustive nature of Hardman’s book reflects the life of a monarch who has visited more than 120 countries and charmed countless world leaders and dignitaries along the way. (Century, £25) Peterloo – The Story of the Manchester Massacre by Jacqueline Riding Next August marks the bicentenary of this landmark call for parliamentary reform, during which the 60,000-strong crowd was charged by cavalry leading to 15 deaths. Author Jacqueline Riding acted as screen historian for Mike Leigh’s recent Peterloo film and she brings a zippy and immersive tone to her own account of this political scandal. (Head…

Exactly 50 years since the death of John Steinbeck, a small town in Somerset will remember him more vividly than most. The great American author, famous for Pulitzer Prize-winner The Grapes of Wrath and the 1952 epic East of Eden, grew up in Salinas, California. But, in 1959, he spent six months living in England with his third wife Elaine. His aim was “to feel the past” and work on The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights, a retelling of Arthurian legend that was published, unfinished and posthumously, in 1976. The author came to know and understand the county of Somerset well. In a letter from the summer of 1959, he noted: “There’s a goodness here after travail. There’s something here that clears your eyes… It’s more than…

There’s an enclave of London – a city that sprawls upwards and outwards with shards of gleaming new buildings and the domes of much older ones – which is characterised by no singular feat of architecture. There were no laws passed here, nor battles won. There is no palace or great bridge on which to hang its hat. Yet what this patch of the capital, nestled between Edgware Road and the Westway, does boast is a key network of canals. This is where the Regent’s Canal meets the Paddington arm of the Grand Union Canal, and it is this that has earned the area the name Little Venice. Unlike its Italian namesake, there are no gondolas here, but Little Venice is surely up there with some of the prettiest parts…

“You’ve got to be recognised and stand out. I’ve always liked top hats, waistcoats and fob watches” I run Regency walking tours around Bath. The tour concentrates on the history and scandal of the city, from Roman times to modern day. After I moved to Bath I wanted to do walking tours with historical accuracy, but with more of a theatrical element. I’m interested in the life stories, scandals and dirty secrets. I wanted to make tours more approachable for people, but also more fun. I dress up as a character: “Mr Elliott”. You’ve got to be recognised and stand out. I’ve always liked top hats, waistcoats, fob watches and tails. I like period dramas and I think they’re becoming more popular. Bath is possibly the most beautiful city in…

1 St Pancras Renaissance London The name is very fitting here. This monumental redbrick building first opened as the Midland Grand Hotel in 1873, yet it spent the best part of the 20th century serving as railway offices. It wasn’t until 2011 that the five-star hotel reopened following a major restoration, part of a sweeping regeneration of the entire King’s Cross area. The renaissance was complete. The original building hardly lacked grandeur. George Gilbert Scott won the Midland Railway’s competition to design a hotel for its new St Pancras terminal and though a mooted fifth floor was never added, it still cost £438,000 – a staggering sum in those days. Today the George’s Bar pays tribute to the visionary architect via a show-stopping red-and-gold interior. renaissance-hotels.marriott.com 2 The Principal York…

The British are rather fond of a traditional pub. While other cultures will congregate in bars, cafés and diners, we are world-renowned for preferring old, family-friendly establishments serving real ales and hearty food. Ideally speaking, our pubs will be several centuries old, decked out with wooden beams and open fires, and blessed with fanciful names such as The Cat & Custard Pot Inn and The Swan with Two Necks (found in Kent and Newcastle-under-Lyme, respectively). Nothing will stop us from enjoying such a place. Nothing, it would seem, including said pub being slowly collapsing around us. For that is precisely what has been happening at The Crooked House, an 18th-century pub just few miles west of the West Midlands town of Dudley. Stand outside and you can’t fail to spot…