Centre stage

The majority of us only pass through the heart of London, more commonly known as Zone 1, for work or play, but, for some people, it’s home. Emma Love meets the residents with Trafalgar Square on the doorstep

Pillar of society

Bravery, bold plans and a good head for numbers helped Thomas Cubitt shape much of London, but he also aided schools, churches and charities, finds Carla Passino

A shore thing

Open skies, shifting clouds and the golden expanse of the beach have inspired artists from John Constable to Antony Gormley, but the sun-bathing throngs have proved a rather less popular subject, as Michael Prodger discovers

Head over heels

When Coco Chanel and architect Eileen Gray built Modernist houses on the French Riviera in 1929, they sparked a fascination with Romantic Modernism that beguiled the likes of Cocteau, Sir Winston Churchill and more. Justine Picardie pays a visit

Show me the light

Illuminating a kitchen island is a dark art, finds Arabella Youens

What an old fossil

From a kamikaze ichthyosaur to a gigantic shell with sinister tentacles, Britain teems with fascinating fossils. Simon de Bruxelles meets the collectors following in Mary Anning’s footsteps

Meet the parrots of the sea

It might look adorable, but the stumpy and dangerously endangered puffin is a ruthlessly efficient fish killer that’s so hellbent on finding its family a home, it will chase rabbits out of their own burrows, observes Ian Morton

Preserving one's modesty

When the British fell in love with the seaside, they invented a mobile building to convey them to the water. Kathryn Ferry tells the remarkable tale of the bathing machine

The true heir to the Old Masters

It wasn't merely brilliant brushwork or sparkling colour that made Sir Joshua Reynolds one of England's greatest portraitists. His talent for friendship nurtured his extraordinary career, says Susan Jenkins

First, catch your trout

Throw in some wine chilled in a shady pool and nothing beats brown trout for an epic riverside feast, enthuses Tom Parker Bowles

Easy treesy

EVERYONE should plant an arboretum. It doesn’t have to be a big one, but you should do it all the same. Start by planting a tree. Just one.

A quieter way of gardening

The Chain, Abergavenny, Monmouthshire The family home of Sarah Price Close artistic observation combined with a deep horticultural intelligence has made Sarah Price one of the finest garden designers today. Tilly Ware visits her at home, where she is experimenting to magical effect

Wonderlands

The sale of almost 10,000 acres of Northumberland leads the market this week

Fruits of the loom

The Inchbald School of Design and Veedon Fleece teach students the beauty of bespoke by inviting them to design their own carpets, finds Amelia Thorpe

Rebels and romantics with a cause

The traditional costume of the Scottish clans and later synonymous with punk, tartan has had an extraordinary journey. Mary Miers explores the world's most famous pattern

View to a thrill

No garden has left Alan Titchmarsh as impressed by the quality of its cultivation and overwhelmed by the sheer joy of its location as that of the Minack Theatre, carved out of a cliff at Porthcurno, Cornwall

The perfect 10

The tantalising tail streamers of the swallow, the musical tumble of the skylark, swirling skies darkened by starlings: Stephen Moss shares the 10 birds we must spot in a lifetime

For succour and relief

Royal Hospital Chelsea, London SW3, part I Managed by the Board of Commissioners of Royal Hospital Chelsea This year is the 300th anniversary of the death of Sir Christopher Wren. In the first of two articles, Roger Bowdler revisits one of his most celebrated creations

To the end of Wales

Another extreme point of Britain is ticked off with a trip to the end of the Llŷn Peninsula

Rule 'chaos' puts shoots at risk

MORE than 200 English shoots are fearing for their futures after a ‘chaotic’ decision to change licensing laws was implemented in a bid to combat avian flu.

What makes a great garden designer?

IN the pantheon of great garden designers, the name of Russell Page looms large

A dream fulfilled at last

The gardens of Mounton House, Chepstow, Monmouthshire Henry Avray Tipping’s masterwork, into which he poured his vast inheritance, would have gone the way of so many Edwardian gardens had it not been for its new owners, who had the brilliant idea of asking the designer Arne Maynard to bring it back to life. Helena Gerrish tells the story

Slim, rich and famous

One of the most famous photographers of the 20th century, Slim Aarons captured the post-war jet set, but his images belie a desire to document

The best master of Italy

As we celebrate the quincentenary of Perugino, the artist who set the stage for the Renaissance, Mary Miers explores the beauty of the region in which he lived and worked

Trailing clouds of glory

The romantic appeal of the past hums through three historic country houses

The designer's room

Lucy Cunningham used a rich mix of patterns in a palette of blues to create a comfortable living room at this riverside house near Marlow

Finally meeting my Waterloo

As commuters dash to catch their train home from south London and lovers meet under its giant clock, Julie Harding explores Waterloo–Britain’s busiest railway station–on the eve of its 175th anniversary

Open all hours

‘If we don’t have it, you don’t need it’: an Aladdin’s cave of useful items, the local hardware store is the shop that time forgot

Their way to heaven

One hundred years ago, a utopian community of artists, farmers and thinkers sought ‘a country life worth living’ in the heart of West Sussex

Nature's towers of strength

The world’s strongest people have nothing on the horned dung beetle, which can tow the equivalent of six double-decker buses, or the golden eagle, with a grip that could burst a car tyre