Hi, I'm Alex, a travel writer based in London, I love writing about travel as much as traveling itself. I’m a scrappy researcher, and a hoarder of info, whether it's trivial or mind-blowing. I get a lot of joy doing justice to worthwhile places, and I’m always excited to share the stories behind them.
I have a real affection for Tarragona in Catalonia, from the golden sandy beaches to the mountains. I love Hamburg and its harbour and many waterways, especially in spring. And I'll always be drawn to the rolling countryside in the south of England, especially Wiltshire. I'll go anywhere with a great art museum, and ruins, ancient or medieval.
Peaceful and rural, Tiverton is in Mid Devon on the River Exe. The older part of town is on high ground on the east bank of the river, where you can visit Tiverton Castle, which has lots of Medieval vestiges, and St Peter’s Church, known for its richly ornamented south front. At the start of …
Seat of a Celtic kingdom in the Dark Ages, Tintagel is a place where history and legend merge. A wild, rocky peninsula has been pinpointed as the birthplace of the legendary King Arthur for hundreds of years, and the Poet Laureate Alfred, Lord Tennyson lent extra weight to these claims with his “Idylls of the …
In the 17th century the Lowther family, who controlled coalmining in Cumberland, started building a port at Whitehaven to develop the industry. Over the next few decades the Lowthers would use their wealth to design one of the first post-Medieval planned towns in the country. Whitehaven remains a Georgian town, inspired by Sir Christopher Wren’s …
If you had to concoct a quintessential English rural town, it might look a lot like Melton Mowbray. This is a place that still has a weekly livestock market and an almshouse, all in the shadow of a beautiful Perpendicular parish church. Two traditional delicacies with European Protected Designation of Origin come from Melton Mowbray …
This adorable town on the west side of the Solent made its money from salt production, shipbuilding and smuggling. Those industries reached their peak in Lymington in 18th century, and their legacy is an intact Georgian townscape with little courtyards and a quaint cobblestone hill leading down to the Town Quay. Now people sail the …
For most of the 19th century Whitley Bay was a mining and fishing settlement on a rugged stretch of the North Sea Coast. But things changed quickly as the town was reborn as a holiday resort, with tourists arriving from nearby Newcastle on the newly built railway. On Whitley Bay’s majestic coastline is a two-mile …
A manufacturing town in the West Midlands conurbation, Walsall had a nationwide reputation for its leather-making during the days of horse-drawn travel. You can investigate this history at the excellent Walsall Leather Museum, where a skilled craftsman will show you how saddles and bridles were handmade in Walsall’s workshops. The town also has an art …
A market town between Southampton and Portsmouth, Fareham lies just northwest of Portsmouth Harbour. Given the harbour’s 800 years of naval history, the Ministry of Defence is a big local employer, and the town and wider borough are furnished with a lot of military heritage. Portchester Castle is the best preserved Roman fort north of …
Between the Cotswolds and the Marlborough Downs, Chippenham grew up in Anglo-Saxon times as a crossing on the River Avon. In the town centre there’s a neat pedestrianised High Street, with a solemn town hall built in 1834. The town museum will give you a crash course in Chippenham’s history, and also owns the Yelde …
At the low-lying confluence of the River Avon and Severn, Tewkesbury is a Medieval half-timbered town. Presiding over this quaint streetscape is the Romanesque crossing tower of Tewkesbury Abbey, which has held on to a wealth of other Norman details. In 1471 Tewkesbury was the site of a battle that put a new king on …