I had a week off work at the beginning of January so decided to spend a day in London, as I hadn’t been back to the capital in more than a year. I didn’t have much of a firm plan, other than tickets to see Holbein at the Tudor Court at The Queen’s Gallery, so I was happy to see where the mood took me. Tokyo Diner It was early lunchtime when I arrived at Paddington and feeling peckish, I headed towards Leicester Square to visit one of my favourite Japanese restaurants, Tokyo Diner. The restaurant is tucked away down…

I was given the GCHQ Puzzle Book for Christmas, and while I’ve only solved the first three puzzles so far, it reminded me that I’ve not yet blogged about my visit to Bletchley Park, the centre of Britain’s code-breaking activities during the Second World War. I have an incredible amount of respect for the men and women who worked so hard to crack the secret messages being sent by enemy forces during the war. Largely because I’m so appallingly awful at deciphering codes and am in awe of those who can unravel the seemingly indecipherable series of letters, symbols and…

While I was at Berkeley Castle, I learned that Dr Jenner’s House was just a five minute walk away. So after looking around the castle, I walked over to the house, as I was keen to see where the ‘father of immunology’ had lived and worked. Dr Edward Jenner was born in Berkeley in 1749, the son of a local vicar, and after finishing his medical training in London, he returned to the Gloucestershire town. He bought his house, The Chantry, in 1785 and lived there with his wife Catherine and their family. In 1796, Dr Jenner cemented his place…

As the site of one of the most infamous maybe-murders in English history, it’s safe to say I’d been dying to visit Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire for quite some time. Despite being only an hour’s drive from Cardiff, I had, for some inexplicable reason, never been before. So when I had a week off work in May, I was determined to finally put that right. Situated in the charming town of Berkeley, just a stone’s throw from the River Severn, the 12th century castle is one of the oldest buildings in England still inhabited by the same family. The castle…

I first heard about The Wallace Collection years ago when I was writing a secret guide to Marylebone for a magazine I was working on at the time. As part of the feature, I was interviewing locals to find out their favourite spots in the area and one woman I talked to mentioned The Wallace Collection. Intrigued, I decided to check it out the following Saturday and discovered an utterly delightful collection of art, porcelain and furnishings inside a magnificent mansion. The Wallace Collection is a collection of European artworks, furniture and armoury amassed by the 4th Marquess of Hertford…

When I lived in London, I used to try to get out for a long walk most weekends. One of my favourite walks was from Belsize Park to Marylebone or Regent’s Street in central London, via Primrose Hill and Regent’s Park. If I was feeling particularly energetic and had the time, I’d sometimes start the walk in Crouch End, making my way to Highgate Woods, through Highgate village and across Hampstead Heath to Belsize Park before continuing into central London. Short on time this trip and keen to pack in as much as I could, I decided to keep it…

On my second day in London, I headed into town bright and early to start the day with a little touristing. My destination? Westminster. Situated on the banks of the River Thames in the heart of London, the historic district is home to a slew of the capital and the country’s most iconic landmarks, including the eponymous Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. Inspired by the previous day’s visit to St Paul’s Cathedral, my first port of call was the magnificent Westminster Abbey. The abbey, which has played host to countless royal weddings, funerals and coronations, dates…

I didn’t have much of a plan when I went to London, I had lots of vague ideas about different places I’d like to visit, but nothing set in stone and I found myself changing my plans on a whim during the trip. One of the places I’d thought about visiting was St Paul’s Cathedral. I’d visited St Paul’s some 10 years earlier and when I lived in London, I was a regular visitor to the café in its crypt. So I was keen to revisit one of the capital’s most iconic landmarks. After spying St Paul’s through a window…

In early March 2020, I spent a day in the Gloucestershire spa town of Cheltenham. Two weeks later we all went into lockdown and this post has sat languishing in my ever-growing drafts pile since, as it didn’t feel quite right to publish it at the time when we couldn’t leave the house. So in a bid to start getting through my seemingly endless backlog of pre-pandemic posts, here are my thoughts on Cheltenham… Ambling around Cheltenham, you could be forgiven for thinking you’d stepped into a Jane Austen novel – that is, if you conveniently ignored the shops, bars,…

Over the bank holiday weekend, we set off on a little roadtrip to Westbury Court Garden, a small water garden in Westbury-on-Severn in Gloucestershire. I’d seen a few photos of the garden on Instagram a few weeks earlier and intrigued by what I’d seen, decided to check it out. The garden was created in the late 17th century by Westbury Court’s owner Maynard Colchester, who oversaw the addition of the garden’s canals, pond and pavilion. The manor house was knocked down in 1805 when the Colchester family decamped to another house nearby, but the family kept the garden. Today it’s…