Architecture

Martello Towers

L.W. Cowie describes how, early in 1805, a series of strong points were built along the British coast-line, to defend against Napoleon’s army, then arrayed across the Channel.

More’s House in Chelsea

Thomas More and his family moved into his ‘Great House’ in Chelsea in 1518. L.W. Cowie describes their life there, until More's arrest in 1534.

Reaching for the Sky

Buildings like the Shard may look like heralds of the future, but they are part of a long history of idealistic urban planning, says Alexander Lee.

York Minster before the Reformation

York Minster was dedicated in 1472 after two and a half centuries of building. L.W. Cowie describes how it still affords insight into medieval life.

The Death and Resurrection of Rome

From A.D. 400, writes E.R. Chamberlin, imperial Rome was subject to pillage and plunder, but Popes in the Renaissance destroyed in order to rebuild.

The Brighton Chain Pier

L.W. Cowie describes what was, for seventy years, a key feature of the fashionable resort on the English south coast.

Northumberland House

L.W. Cowie takes a visit to the last of the great Elizabethan and Jacobean mansions of London, that once looked south across the Thames and survived until 1874.