People say it was the pandemic that did it, but it’s just as easy to blame Topshop. Back in the 1990s and 2000s, the brand’s flagship store stood just outside the entrance to Oxford Circus tube station and was the epitome of Cool Britannia. At one point, Kate Moss posed stock-still in the window –...
Tag: Travel – Destination Guide hubs
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The Sussex town fighting to reopen its French-owned beach
“For some of us it has made it feel safer,” says local resident Abi Blanshard. “Some of the dark bits, the underpasses, you can be a bit reluctant to walk through. It just feels a little bit nicer, a bit cleaner, safer. My partner works down at the food bank and the people he’s spoken...
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The five best Thames walks
Best for… A bit of a climb Start/end point: Dorchester Distance: 4km / 2½ miles to 14.5km / 9 miles Map Wittenham Clumps, Oxfordshire’s “twin peaks”, rise 120m (394ft) and 110m (361ft), providing a fine vantage over a lovely stretch of river. Start in winsome Dorchester – aka the Roman town of Doric – where...
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10 British woodland wonders to discover this summer
All is not quite as it seems in this ancient semi-natural woodland lining the southern bank of the Ure. Gnarled sessile oaks speak of great age, now interspersed with wych elm, sycamore, rowan, ash and silver birch. But those moss-greened ruins peering out from the greenery aren’t actually the remains of Roman temples or medieval...
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The victims of Jack the Ripper deserve better than London’s lurid tours
Because his identity is unknown, each successive generation has made of him whatever monster they will: a Jack of all trades. For contemporaries, he was a physical embodiment of the sordidness, deprivation and poverty of the Victorian East End. By the 1960s, he seems to have become more aristocratic, a psychopath in a top hat...
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Britain’s best white-sand beaches
Aquamarine waters, bone-white sands, bleached driftwood… the stuff of holiday brochures and Instagram posts, and designed to lure us to foreign and exotic idylls. But, hang on; why go abroad? Look closer to home. Britain’s coastline may not offer the bath-warm temperatures and languid palm trees of, say, the Caribbean, but it has some startling...
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The 10 best holidays in Norfolk for 2024
One of the fleet used for the WWII Dunkirk evacuations in May 1940, her restoration included a new curved mahogany canopy and mast. Be sure to spot Ernest Tom Neathercoat, a lifeboat which served Wells between 1965 and 1990. How to do it: Curlew Coastal Charters (07512 086794; curlewcoastalcharters.co.uk) offers trips ranging from £10 per...
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How a Welsh pub was rebuilt brick by brick and taken back to 1915
Five more buildings remade brick by brick St Fagans is a treasure trove of old buildings, remade. In its new home The Vulcan sits beside a row of shops and a working men’s club, both of which appeared in 2007 in an episode of Doctor Who set in the 1910s, thanks to their period accuracy....
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The twee Cotswolds town that became a super-rich playground
The service in the rest of the hotel isn’t quite as dedicated as the Grain Store, with staff overstretched in the restaurant, which is riotously popular with locals who come to devour oysters with champagne. Food is traditional with a trendy take and dependably delicious. I very much enjoyed my cheese souffle with truffle, and...
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The Norfolk nature reserve known for its pristine sands – and surprising birdlife
Even so, the unseasonal conditions make one particularly heavy-set, long-necked bird seem all the more exotic. Standing nearly a metre tall on sturdy black legs, its plumage is pure white except for a dusting of saffron on its chest. Its dark bill flattens out into a bronze-tipped spatula that the bird is dipping into the...
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The best places to go fossil hunting in Britain
Crail Harbour Gallery and Tea room is a characterful café with sea views (01333 451896; crailharbourgallery.co.uk) . UK Association of Fossil Hunters occasionally runs guided fossil walks at Crail and other locations around the UK (ukafh) Best find? Hard to beat those track marks of the giant centipede. Boggle Hole, Yorkshire A one-mile hike south...
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The 10 best holidays in Cornwall for 2024
One such is Cornish Cycle Tours, which offers a five-day West Cornwall itinerary, starting in Porthleven and following the coast clockwise through Penzance, Sennen, St Ives, Redruth and Falmouth. The package includes accommodation at each stopping point, as well as the option to ride an electric bike. How to do it: Cornish Cycle Tours (01637...