Tag Archives: architecture

Great Yarmouth: the View from the Monument

Posted on November 3, 2015 by

The strangest place in the wide world Charles Dickens I wrote a post about Great Yarmouth’s Time and Tide Museum some time ago. The museum continues to be one of the town’s cultural highlights but for inquisitive visitors, especially those with … Continue reading →

Posted in Human Geography, Norfolk | Tagged , , , , , | 10 Comments

Digbeth

Posted on June 21, 2015 by

Passing through Birmingham recently I had a little time on my hands and so decided to visit the Digbeth area, a shortish walk from New Street Station. Head south from the futuristic silver button bulwark that is the Selfridges building … Continue reading →

Posted in Cities, History | Tagged , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Palmyra 2000

Posted on May 22, 2015 by

The news is always bad from Syria these days. The newsworthiness of the conflict seems to fluctuate as we in the West become increasingly inured to a lexicon that includes words like barrel bombs, Isis, chlorine gas, jihadi, caliphates and … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Travel | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Serbia 4

Posted on August 9, 2013 by

The new edition of my Serbia guide is published today. It’s fully updated, of course, with revised text and lots of new listings, especially for Belgrade, a city that despite considerable setbacks seems to drive itself forever onwards and upwards. … Continue reading →

Posted in Balkans, Eastern Europe, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Yugoslav Hotels

Posted on February 11, 2013 by

They are a dying breed, Yugoslav hotels. And I use the word ‘Yugoslav’ advisedly as, although the buildings shown here are in what is now Serbia, all were erected during the period when that country was still part of Yugoslavia. … Continue reading →

Posted in Balkans, Eastern Europe, Travel | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Savamala, Belgrade

Posted on October 18, 2012 by

I have just returned from Belgrade, the Serbian capital, where I have been doing research for the fourth edition of my Bradt Serbia guide that will be published next summer sometime. Belgrade never was the white city that its name (Beo = white, grad … Continue reading →

Posted in Balkans, History, Travel | Tagged , , , , | 10 Comments

High Line

Posted on October 29, 2011 by

New York City isn’t the sort of place that immediately springs to mind when one thinks of walking but the city is a treasurehouse for urban exploration. Walking – with a little bit of assistance from the city’s comprehensive bus and subway system – is by far … Continue reading →

Posted in Travel, Walking | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

East of Everett – Riding the Empire Builder

Posted on October 17, 2011 by

Arriving in Seattle, having spent the last two weeks on a small boat, it was time to make use of other forms of transport to get home. Flying all the way Seattle-New York-London would have been straightforward enough but after a fortnight at … Continue reading →

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Tomsk Waits

Posted on July 30, 2011 by

In contrast to the northwest Scotland of previous posts, the central Siberian city of Tomsk is indisputably East of Elveden – both figuratively and geographically. It is, after all, almost one quarter of the way around the world heading east from where … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Literature, music, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Architecture without Architects

Posted on June 23, 2011 by

It all started more than 25 years ago when I bought a book called Architecture without Architects in a second-hand bookshop. The book, pithily subtitled A Short Introduction to Non-Pedigreed Architecture, and authored by Bernard Rudolfsky, came as a revelation, … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments