Showing titles in Architecture

Lighthouses are striking totems of our relationship to the sea. For many, they encapsulate a romantic vision of solitary homes amongst the waves, but their original purpose is much more utilitarian than that. Still today we depend upon their guiding lights for the safe passage of ships. Nowhere is this truer than in the rock lighthouses of Great Britain and Ireland, a ring of 19 towers built between 1811-1905, so called because they were constructed on desolate rock formations in the middle of the sea, and made of granite to withstand the power of its waves.

From the medieval cobbles, through Dickensian iron and fog, to the neon lights and bustle of the twenty-first century, the ever-changing streets of London map out the vibrant stories, triumphs and struggles of everyone who ever called London home. From the Roman and Celts marching along the ancient Old Kent Road, to the rattling newspaper presses of Fleet Street, the game of Monopoly has painted London's story across cheerful coloured tiles. But those Monopoly streets live and breathe—they don't just illuminate our history.

Churches are many things to us—they are places of worship, vibrant community hubs and oases of calm reflection. To know a church is to hold a key to the past that unlocks an understanding of our shared history. Andrew Ziminski has spent decades as a stonemason and church conservator, acting as an informal guide to curious visitors. Church Going is his handbook to the medieval churches of the British Isles, in which he reveals their fascinating histories, features and furnishings, from flying buttresses to rood screens, lichgates to chancels.

The Colosseum was Imperial Rome's monument to warfare. Like a cathedral of death it towered over the city and invited its citizens, 50,000 at a time, to watch murderous gladiatorial games. It is now visited by two million visitors a year (Hitler was among them). Award-winning classicist Mary Beard, with Keith Hopkins, tells the story of Rome's greatest arena: how it was built; the gladiatorial and other games that were held there; the training of the gladiators; the audiences who revelled in the games, the emperors who staged them and the critics.

SOHO - ILLICIT, GLAMOROUS, SORDID, LOUCHE, POVERTY-STRICKEN, SQUALID, EXHILARATING. One of Britain's best-loved historians, Dan Cruickshank grants us an intimacy with centuries of rich and varied London history as he guides us around the Soho of the last five hundred years. We learn of its...

One of the Telegraph's 'Greatest Books of 2025' 'Superb' Telegraph 'There's a real sense of peace and magic in this beautiful book' Daisy Buchanan 'Utterly endearing' Dr James Canton 'A fantastic book for weird walkers and megalith-obsessives alike' Weird Walk 'I was alternately gripped and...

Brought to you by Penguin. THE NEW BOOK FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE LITTLE BOOK OF HYGGE A gorgeous guide to the Danish art of creating a cosy, happy home. Our homes should be a place of comfort, a place to feel safe when we shut the door. Somewhere to be ourselves, to unwind and create special...

The architecture of Britain is an art gallery all around us. From our streets to squares, through our cities, suburbs and villages, we are surrounded by magnificent buildings of eclectic styles. A Short History of British Architecture is the gripping and untold story of why Britain looks the way it does, from prehistoric Stonehenge to the lofty towers of today.

Architect Laura Jane Clark, from the BBC and Netflix smash-hit series Your Home Made Perfect, has spent over 15 years designing, remodelling, and building homes with budgets that range from modest to enormous. The Handbook of Home Design distils Laura's wealth of experience and enthusiasm giving you an accessible yet detailed guide to design, empowering you with the tools and knowledge to shape your home how you want.

Previous accounts of the fall of the Inca empire have played up the importance of the events of one violent day in November 1532 at the highland Andean town of Cajamarca. To some, the "Cajamarca miracle" - in which Francisco Pizarro and a small contingent of Spaniards captured an Inca who led an army numbering in the tens of thousands - demonstrated the intervention of divine providence. To others, the outcome was simply the result of European technological and immunological superiority.  

In recent years house histories have become the new frontier of popular, participatory history. People, many of whom have already embarked upon that great adventure of genealogical research, and who have encountered their ancestors in the archives and uncovered family secrets, are now turning to...

Historian Annie Gray takes us down the street and through the ages, from medieval marketplaces to the purpose-built concrete precincts of the 20th century. Peeping through the windows of tailors, tearooms and grocers, we explore everything from the toyshops of yesteryear - where curiosities were sold for adults, not children - to the birth of brands we shop at today.

'A fascinating detective story told with humor and joy that unravels the threads of history and legend to reveal the strange stories of Britain's hill figures.'—Fiona Roberston, author of Stone Lands A journey through Britain’s chalklands, uncovering the stories, symbolism, and shifting...

Michelangelo, God's Architect is the first book to tell the full story of Michelangelo's final two decades, when the peerless artist refashioned himself into the master architect of St. Peter’s Basilica and other major buildings. When the Pope handed Michelangelo control of the St. Peter’s project in 1546, it was a study in architectural mismanagement, plagued by flawed design and faulty engineering.

Penguin Presents the audiobook edition of Paths to the Past written and read by Francis Pryor. Landscapes reflect and shape our behaviour. They make us who we are and bear witness to the shifting patterns of human life over the generations. Formed by a complex series of natural and human...

Great castles are invaluable historical artifacts, that give us an incredible window into the medieval world. Castles were part of the very fabric of medieval society, and profoundly influenced the political, economic, demographic, and social evolution of Europe. In the 24 compelling lectures of Great Castles of Europe, Professor Victoria L. McAlister, of Towson University guides you through the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance, highlighting outstanding and historically significant castles of these extraordinary times.

Radio 4's In Our Time has established itself at the pinnacle of essential conversation on a wide range of subjects from science, history, philosophy and the arts. The programme, which celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2023, is presented by Melvyn Bragg with contributors from the diverse worlds of academia. Opening with four contextual episodes - The Artist, Imagination, The Muses, and Architecture and Power - this thematic anthology contains 25 programmes on the history of visual art. Included are artistic styles and movements.

Throughout LGBTQ+ history, suburbia has been seen as somewhere to escape from: a place where heterosexuality rules; where difference will not be tolerated; where you'll never find a soulmate. But for many, those streets of twitching curtains and pebble-dashed semis were - or still are - a place to call home. From Addlestone to Wilmslow, Tales of the Suburbs explores the relatively untold twentieth century tale of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer people in suburbia.

Brought to you by Penguin. Join Lady Carnarvon as she reveals untold stories from past residents of Highclere Castle and an intimate glimpse into the daily rhythms and timeless traditions of one of Britain’s most iconic stately homes. Built in a bygone era, Highclere Castle and its surrounding...

No city stirs the imagination more than Venice. From the richly ornamented palaces emerging from the waters of the Grand Canal to the dazzling sites of Piazza San Marco, visitors and residents alike sense they are entering, as fourteenth-century poet Petrarch remarked, “another world.” During the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Venice was celebrated as a model republic in an age of monarchs. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it became famous for its freewheeling lifestyle characterized by courtesans, casinos, and Carnival.