78 Derngate is the only building outside Scotand to have been designed by Charles Rennie…read moreMackintosh, having been in private ownership for many years, it passed to a trust and after a huge amount of fundraising it has opened as a beautifully restored museum, the period detail and level of attention is breathtaking. The adjoining house has now been opened as a gift shop/cafe and museum celebrating William Basset Lowke the toy train maker who owned the house orginally and commissioned Mackintosh to do the work. When the house was owned by Lowke, one of the more famous house guests was George Bernard Shaw no less!

The museum is predominantly a military museum with about half devoted to domestic history and other…read morethings. Some of the displays are good, others s bit tired. Spoiled by lack of care in text, with the misuse of the apostrophe being irritating on a fair few panels. If they are careless about punctuation, we must ask if they bothered to be accurate in what they wrote.

a well presented local facility, we've visited a few times with our young son…read moresome interesting local informaion displayed our boy is always facinated with the large display of war medals

My husband and I held our UK wedding reception at Saint Mary's Guildhall. It is the most beautiful…read moreplace ever with such a rich history! No wedding decoration is required, as the Guildhall is so ornate as it is! We had an enjoyable experience working with the catering staff as well. Everyone was very kind and helpful, especially as most of the interaction and planning was done via email. Would highly recommend this location for an event. I also refer all family and visitors to visit this place during open hours and learn the history and stories that go along with it.

This is a fantastic medieval gothic guildhall, we had our wedding here and they were really…read morehelpful. During the day, the crypt is a cafe but this can be hired for parties or for wedding services (the Registrar comes over). The main guildhall is accessed by a large flight of stairs (with a wheelchair lift also) and is open during the day so that you can see the wonderful woodwork etc but again, this can be hired for parties with a very basic sound system in the minstrals gallery (it broke down on our wedding night though). Being owned by Coventry Council places some limitations such as not being able to bring in caterers but the food was delicious and good value. There is a small bar so I would recommend ordering plenty of bottles for tables etc to avoid guests queueing too much and the downside is that the toilets are down the stairs and through another set of doors. The atmosphere makes up for this though!

I'm all for getting to wonder around a castle and find the hidden pathways items of the time period…read moreand the history because right here it's full of it! First off if you plan on coming here on the weekend like my visit was then Rope Drop it because about 2hrs into my visit it was super busy and I was able to get the majority of it done without dealing with the crowd which in my opinion made my experience totally worth coming here! So thankfully I choose to visit inside the castle and see all the items on display as well as the different rooms they have set up to different people who lived here showcasing how they lived and what their setup was making for a total history vibe! The castle also features a few shows such as jousting a bird show a catapult demonstration and more of them I only caught the catapult demonstration as my time was limited here so I made the best of it and decided to go explore the rest of the castle. So when I went exploring I decided it would be a good idea to walk up to the wall and up the spiral stair cases and let me say right there was a total workout as these stairs are beyond small and super winded as well as closed in so bring some good shoes your gonna need them! After climbing the stairs I reached the top of the castle and then chilled for a bit to take in the beautiful views it had to offer by this time I was able to look into the courtyard and see just how crowded it was getting knowing I made the right choice to come up here I ventured further found a few other spiral stairs that lead to different parts of the castle by the end of the second one I didn't see anyone and I was totally alone again and let's just say that was a total vibe as I felt hidden in such a massive structure and I just kinda geeked out for a minute about how cool this entire experience was! Overall very cool castle and experience hopefully I get to come back here again someday as it really just felt magical in it's own way!

It's a tourist-centric experience in a country full of castles that may offer a more…read morehistory-focused and much less expensive day out. £24 a ticket, no matter the age and then and additional £6 to park...regardless of the time of day. If you enter at 4PM you get an hour of the place for that price. Listen, the Falconer's Quest (birds of prey show) is enjoyable - but is that alone worth the cost? Maybe. I will leave it up to you.

George Hill Annual Festival of Wines. Establised Family owned Wine Merchants for more than 100…read moreyears. Trading since 1909 George Hill has maintained its reputation for consistent quality and value for money. George Hill Ltd is a provincial Wine Merchant, situated in the centre of Loughborough in Leicestershire. One of the great advantages to buying wine from them is that they hold a range of regular customer events such as weekly tastings. If you're looking to expand your drinking repertoire. From small and quirky through to ultra premium, here you will find the best combination of hard-to-get products and expert service.

For a small place Loughborough certainly attracts some pretty good shows and attractions. The town…read morehall is setup well to receive these acts. There is a large hall with stadium seating that can be setup to accommodate these larger productions. As it's not a full on venue, it's pretty reasonably priced when a good show comes to town. A few years ago I went to see the production east is east and it was fantastic. You got really close to the action. I would recommend seeing a show here. There is always a panto around Xmas and that's a good giggle and a cheap afternoon out

A private club, so be prepared to find a member to gain entry…read more The Union is an icon in British culture. A center of debate and public discourse, you should really try to catch a debate if you are in Oxford during term. The member's bar is an excellent perk and serves a sparse, but nice lunch during weekdays. I'm writing this review from the free wireless service, which is another nice feature (though it works better from the libraries than the bar.) Snooker tables upstairs add a nice bonus to the typical bar scene in Oxford. The Union has become my haven when I am in the busy streets of downtown Oxford. The leather seats in the bar and the relatively quiet atmosphere during the day make it a great place to relax and get work done, or bring others for a discussion or meeting. You will find yourself surrounded mostly by undergraduates, followed by a healthy mix of post-grads and faculty. The debates are similar demographics, and tend to feature diametrically opposed parties. These are not always the best debates as they often pitch opposing ideologies and simply bash assumptions against each other rather than focus on the logical systems each side is using. The student debates before the formal debates tend to hold more fine points of discussion and a bit of humor. Both are worth going to, however, and some are more compelling than others. All in all, I think the Oxford Union deserves its iconic status, and if you can, you really should make an effort to experience it. Members can bring guests for a £3 entry fee. If you are affiliated with the university, and eligible for membership, you can only be a guest 3 times before you are asked to buy your own membership.

The world-famous Oxford Union is rightly proud of its library. Of course, Oxford is full of…read morelibraries crammed with rare copies, beautiful interiors and terrifyingly intelligent academics. This fits the mould, but is a healthy mixtures of generally artsy books. In keeping with the general theme of the union, it's well-loved by law and politics students, although there's something for most subjects. It's one of the biggest libraries where you can borrow books (as opposed to sit in there and read them) in Oxford, but its use is limited to members of the Union, for which it is necessary to pay over £100. There's also a decent collection of fiction, which can be a bit lacking in college libraries. It's got books written in the past few years. The travel guides are particularly useful, although quickly outdated, as are the magazines and newspapers. They're generally quite serious magazines (although FHM has been known to make an appearancE) - more the Economist and New Scientist than Heat or Hello, and much cheaper than buying one which you'll read once. If you're not a member of the Union or the Union Society, you can still visit the library for £1.50 and it's well worth doing so to see the Pre-Raphaelite murals (1857-9) painted by Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris. They're all quite dramatic and mostly related to the legends of King Arthur. Don't forget to look up at the ceiling!

A large grand country house with guided tours. There are several variants of tour. We took a full…read moreone and although good I felt there was too much detail of family history that listeners would never remember. The cafe was good. There is a lot to see here and you really need to get there early to see it all.

It was once known as the English Versailles. This grand building is the Northamptonshire home of…read morethe Dukes of Buccleuch and Queensberry. The French-style north front of the house, entrance hall and state rooms were built in the 1690s. Inside is a rich collection of paintings, furniture, tapestries, needlework, porcelain and silver. One room has 37 Van Dykes! The house is only open to the public for one month each year.

Fot the weirdness of it, the girlyness of it, the fetishness of it, this gets a 5. (and they do…read moretouch on fetish in the exhibition). There are other things in this museum but you don't really notice. The largest collection of boots and shoes in the world. Includes Elton John's huge Doc Marten Boots from Pinball Wizard. Little Titch, Music hall artist, boots recently seen on QI. Exhibits at the gallery include shoes for animals - from horses, dogs and even elephants! Northampton was/is a shoe making town. Their Life and Sole (oh haha) galleries are the place for all dedicated followers of fashionoooer ark at me..burst into song there.

The shoe museum in Northampton provides a history of shoes in a town famous for its cobbling. There…read moreare a large collection of shoes though the ages, including some very scary looking shoes for bound feet. There are even some roman sandals as well as much more modern footware. The gift shop sells a number of suitably shoe related items along with the standard postcards, erasers and pencils. The exhibition is good for the serious shoe lover but is worth a few minutes of your time even if you only own two pairs of shoes yourself. The Shoe Museum - does exactly what it says on the tin!