501 Places

Cricket has a hard time selling itself to non-believers. In its original form (test match cricket) a game can last for five days, with each day lasting for around seven hours including breaks. And at the end of those five days? More than 1 in 3 finish as a draw. The game stops when it’s [...]

In the latest guest post on 501 Places, well-known travel blogger Darren Cronian shares with us a love of his native Leeds and offers insider tips for those visiting his home city. For many people, when you mention the city of Leeds, they associate it with being a great place for nightlife and shopping, but [...]

We have moved house more times than most. In fact, in a little over 20 years together we’ve lived in or close to six big UK cities (Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester, Cardiff, Bristol and most recently London) as well as a spell in New York. We were, until 2006, proud to say we had not lived [...]

I asked my wife the other day: what makes a particular place a romantic one?  She immediately replied that it was about the person you’re with, rather than where you are. So I asked her if it would make any difference if I took her for a romantic weekend to Paris or to Cleethorpes (for [...]

After the Great Fire of London in 1666, Christopher Wren was instructed to design and rebuild 51 churches in the city. He was later knighted and would become the architect who, more than any other, left his mark on the city in a way that has survived more than three centuries. Wren’s most celebrated work [...]

It seems in recent months that anyone and anything in the south-east of England is finding a way to incorporate the word London into its name in a bid to boost business. First we had the ridiculous spectacle of London Oxford airport, so named despite it being nearly 60 miles from the capital (even a [...]

Grosvenor Square, in the heart of London’s exclusive Mayfair, has been home to the American Embassy since 1938. It has maintained a very significant and increasingly fortified presence in the square through some turbulent times, both for London and for the United States. Given that this square is the spiritual home of Americans in the [...]

If you find yourself in London on a hot sunny Sunday there are few better places to while away the time than along the canal in Camden. Selling itself as the boho centre of London this area long ago opened its doors to the mainstream. Among its more traditional gothic clothing stores you’ll find plenty [...]

Mention the north of England to many people (especially those who live in or around London) and the most likely first impression you’ll get is one of grim cities, long silent coal mines and the dark satanic mills immortalised in William Blake’s Jerusalem. ‘The North’ is a scary place, inhabited by primitive and savage people [...]

In some parts of the world Britain has a reputation for its indifferent customer service. I have on occasions felt it right to defend our waiters, our ticket sellers and our tourism officials. But an incident on Southern Trains yesterday showed me the very worst of British, and left me wanting to apologise to the [...]