Heritage

The rootlessness that haunts the children of immigrants

3 August 2024 9:00 am

Edward Wong tries to connect with his Chinese heritage by retracing his father’s military postings before the Great Famine – but finds the country too changed to make comparisons

Why Stonehenge doesn’t have to go the same way as Liverpool

28 July 2021 6:30 pm

It has not been a good month for the United Kingdom’s internationally important heritage sites. Stonehenge is teetering on the…

Warning: there’s a plague of fake blue plaques

4 June 2016 9:00 am

One of the great distinctions and pleasures of British life has been devalued by cheap imitations

The price of a cathedral – and how deans pay it

26 March 2016 9:00 am

Deans are facing tough decisions to keep their beautiful buildings in good order

Like southern France — with added kangaroos

The lovely Clare Valley, like southern France with added kangaroos

23 January 2016 9:00 am

It is a century and a half since The Spectator noted the exceptional qualities of South Australia, a colony of…

The birth of the plastic bag (blame Sweden)

12 September 2015 9:00 am

Old bags The government announced details of a compulsory 5p charge for single-use plastic bags in shops. Plastic bags have…

Meet the men taking up arms to protect the Middle East’s ancient treasures

12 September 2015 9:00 am

Syrians, Libyans and Malians are risking their lives to save ancient treasures from Islamists – with shamefully little help from us

Look homeward, angel: Glasgow Necropolis

The graveyard where old Glasgow lives on

1 August 2015 9:00 am

A wet walk in a Glaswegian graveyard might not be your idea of fun, but then you might not have…

The National Trust is spoiling beautiful places in the name of people who’ll never visit them

15 November 2014 9:00 am

Why do we ruin beautiful places to make them appeal to those who’ll never visit anyway?

Christopher Buckley's diary: Do you have to be American to love Downton?

17 May 2014 9:00 am

My wife and I spent the winter in Worcestershire. This allowed me to tell everyone back home in the States:…

Meeting George Osborne at Waterloo

10 May 2014 9:00 am

The defence of Hougoumont is one of the great British feats of arms. If the farmhouse had fallen to Bonaparte’s…

Tristram Hunt's diary: Why has Gove allowed a school that makes women wear the hijab?

19 October 2013 9:00 am

ONE OF THE MINOR sociological treats of being appointed shadow education secretary is a frontbench view of David Cameron’s crimson…

Christopher Sykes’s diary: David Hockney, Bridlington lobster, and the risks of a third martini

6 July 2013 9:00 am

I began my week with a trip to Bridlington, the closest seaside town to my childhood home. ‘Brid’, as it’s…