Then & Now Britain

Then & Now Britain Exploring Britain’s past and present through photographs, stories, and landmarks.

From historic streets to modern skylines, we celebrate how the nation has changed—and what still endures.

Castle Combe is a quintessential Cotswold village, largely unchanged over the centuries, with its warm, honey-coloured s...
17/02/2026

Castle Combe is a quintessential Cotswold village, largely unchanged over the centuries, with its warm, honey-coloured stone buildings typical of the region.

One of its standout features is The Bridge House, perched beside the village bridge. Dating back to the 1600s, it exemplifies the village’s enduring charm and historic character. Recently, the property was listed for £1.5 million, reflecting both its heritage and picturesque setting.

Gads Hill Place in Higham, Kent, was the cherished country home of Charles Dickens, the only house he ever owned. Built ...
17/02/2026

Gads Hill Place in Higham, Kent, was the cherished country home of Charles Dickens, the only house he ever owned. Built in 1780 for Thomas Stephens, a former Mayor of Rochester, it sits opposite the Sir John Falstaff pub, near the site of Shakespeare’s famous robbery scene in Henry IV, Part 1.

Dickens first saw the house as a child in 1821, inspired by his father’s words that hard work might one day allow him to own such a place. In 1856, at the height of his fame, he purchased it for £1,790—equivalent to roughly £246,636 today—and moved in by June 1857. Initially intended as an investment, he soon made it his retreat, where he wrote or planned works including A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, Our Mutual Friend, and the unfinished The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

After Dickens’s death in 1870, his eldest son remained in the house until 1879. In 1924, it became Gad’s Hill School, which it continues to be, with the main house preserved and plans for its opening as a museum. Grade I-listed, Gads Hill Place endures as a symbol of Dickens’s rise from humble beginnings to literary eminence.

Exchange Flags in Liverpool occupies a site steeped in commercial and military history. The current Grade II-listed comp...
17/02/2026

Exchange Flags in Liverpool occupies a site steeped in commercial and military history. The current Grade II-listed complex replaced earlier Exchange Buildings, the 1803 and 1864 structures, the latter designed in French Renaissance style by Thomas Henry Wyatt and demolished in 1939.

The layout forms a ‘U’ shape, with Walker House on the west and Horton House on the east. During construction, Walker House—originally Derby House—was adapted to contain an extensive underground bunker. Covering 55,000 square feet, this reinforced facility became the Western Approaches Command Headquarters during the Second World War, coordinating the Battle of the Atlantic. At its height, over 1,000 Royal Navy and RAF personnel worked within its walls, making it a pivotal centre for Allied naval operations.

Tu Hwnt I’r Bont in Llanrwst, North Wales, is a striking 15th-century building with a long history at the heart of the t...
17/02/2026

Tu Hwnt I’r Bont in Llanrwst, North Wales, is a striking 15th-century building with a long history at the heart of the town.

Originally, it served official functions, acting as a courthouse and tax office, overseeing local governance and commerce. In the early 19th century, a local family acquired the property and transformed it into a tearoom, a role it retains to this day.

Perched near the town’s famous bridge, its timber-framed façade and whitewashed walls make it instantly recognisable. The building’s combination of historic function and enduring charm has made it a lasting symbol of Llanrwst, drawing visitors for both its architecture and its riverside setting.

Bridge House in Ambleside, spanning Stock Beck, is one of the Lake District’s most charming landmarks.Constructed in the...
17/02/2026

Bridge House in Ambleside, spanning Stock Beck, is one of the Lake District’s most charming landmarks.

Constructed in the 17th century by the Braithwaite family, the house originally provided access to their orchards and served as an apple store. Its unusual position over the beck may have been intended to avoid land taxes, with doors on either bank allowing passage through the building itself. Later alterations, including sealing the rear door and adding a chimney, adapted it for domestic and commercial use.

Over the centuries, Bridge House has housed a remarkable variety of functions: a counting house for local mills, a weaver’s shop, a cobbler’s, a chair maker’s workshop, an antique shop, a tea room, and even a home for a family of eight. Through all these changes, it has retained its distinctive charm and quirkiness, becoming inseparable from Ambleside’s identity.

Now in the care of the National Trust, it continues to welcome visitors as a small shop, preserving both its history and its role as a beloved focal point in the town.

Chipping Campden’s main street stretches impressively through the heart of the town, reflecting its historic role as a c...
17/02/2026

Chipping Campden’s main street stretches impressively through the heart of the town, reflecting its historic role as a centre of the Cotswold wool trade. The broad street, lined with stone-built merchants’ houses, inns, and workshops, allowed for markets and fairs that drew buyers from across the region.

Many of the buildings date from the 14th century onward, their stone façades, mullioned windows, and steeply pitched roofs preserving the town’s medieval and early modern character. The street itself, unusually wide for a small market town, hints at the wealth and importance generated by the wool trade over centuries.

Today, Chipping Campden remains a thriving destination for visitors, its historic charm and well-preserved architecture offering a tangible link to its prosperous past.

Old Steelyard in Soham, Cambridgeshire, now forms part of The Fountain Inn and stands as a reminder of the town’s tradin...
17/02/2026

Old Steelyard in Soham, Cambridgeshire, now forms part of The Fountain Inn and stands as a reminder of the town’s trading past.

Soham was once a busy inland port, sending goods by water toward King’s Lynn and beyond to European markets. Though much of that history is now concealed behind 19th-century façades, traces remain in the fabric of older buildings that once belonged to prosperous merchants.

The most striking survival is the Steelyard itself, an early weighing machine erected in the 17th century. Using a counterbalance system, it weighed carts before and after their journeys to the docks, allowing officials to calculate duty on goods. Wool was a principal commodity, much of it destined for the Huguenot cloth trade.

The term “steelyard” derives from an old word associated with wool weighing, and while such devices were once common in trading centres, Soham’s example, now Grade II* listed, is one of only two known to survive in the country. It offers a rare glimpse into the practical mechanics of early modern commerce.

Mercery Lane in Canterbury offers one of the most evocative approaches to Canterbury Cathedral. In E. Smith’s 1846 paint...
17/02/2026

Mercery Lane in Canterbury offers one of the most evocative approaches to Canterbury Cathedral. In E. Smith’s 1846 painting, the narrow street draws the eye toward the cathedral entrance, framed by the close-set medieval buildings that lean gently inward as they rise.

Many of the structures along the lane date from the 14th century. Their upper floors project beyond the ground storeys in a technique known as jettying. This medieval method of timber framing allowed builders to increase interior space on the upper levels while preserving the width of the street below. The result is the distinctive overhang that gives Mercery Lane its intimate, almost theatrical character.

The 21st-century view shows a street that has adapted to modern life, with shopfronts and signage reflecting present-day commerce. Yet the essential form remains. The timber frames, angled beams, and jutting storeys still guide visitors toward the cathedral just as they did centuries ago, preserving a powerful sense of continuity in the heart of Canterbury.

The Feathers Hotel in Ludlow is one of the finest timber-framed buildings in England and a defining feature of the town’...
16/02/2026

The Feathers Hotel in Ludlow is one of the finest timber-framed buildings in England and a defining feature of the town’s centre.

Built in 1619 for Rees Jones, a lawyer from Pembrokeshire, it was conceived as a private house at a time when Ludlow was an important administrative centre for the Welsh Marches. Its richly carved half-timbered façade, close studding, and ornate plasterwork mark it as a confident blend of late Tudor and early Jacobean style.

Around 1670 the building was converted into an inn, a role it has retained ever since. Inside, many period features survive, including carved staircases, heavy beams, and decorative ceilings, giving a strong sense of its early 17th-century origins.

Often described as the most picturesque of Ludlow’s timbered houses, it has drawn admiration far beyond Shropshire. The New York Times once referred to it as the “most handsome inn in the world,” a tribute to both its craftsmanship and its enduring presence at the heart of the town.

From the medieval city walls of York, the view toward York Minster and Lendal Bridge brings together centuries of civic ...
16/02/2026

From the medieval city walls of York, the view toward York Minster and Lendal Bridge brings together centuries of civic and religious history in a single sweep.

The walls themselves extend for about two miles, forming the most complete circuit of medieval town defences in England. Walking their length offers elevated views across the city, with the vast mass of York Minster rising above rooftops and the graceful span of Lendal Bridge crossing the River Ouse below.

At the turn of the 19th century, this historic panorama nearly vanished. In 1800, York Corporation petitioned the House of Lords for permission to remove sections of the walls, along with the posterns, city bars, and their barbicans. The proposals reflected changing attitudes, as old fortifications were often seen as obstacles to modern growth.

The petitions were refused. That decision preserved not only the physical fabric of the walls but also the character of the city itself. Today, the survival of York’s defences allows visitors to experience the same commanding views that have defined the city for centuries.

On this day in 1963, during what became known as the Big Freeze, people were photographed cycling and walking along a fr...
16/02/2026

On this day in 1963, during what became known as the Big Freeze, people were photographed cycling and walking along a frozen stretch of the River Thames near Windsor Bridge. The winter of 1962 to 1963 was one of the coldest in modern British history, with weeks of sub-zero temperatures that brought daily life to a halt in many areas.

In earlier centuries, such scenes were more familiar. During the period often called the Little Ice Age, from roughly the early 17th to the 19th century, the Thames in London occasionally froze hard enough to support large crowds. When it did, enterprising Londoners organised frost fairs on the ice. Stalls sold food and drink, printers produced souvenir cards, skaters glided across the surface, and makeshift taverns operated directly on the river.

Colder winters were part of the story, but so too was the character of the river itself. The Thames was wider and shallower in places, and the old London Bridge, with its 19 narrow piers, slowed the current further. This made freezing more likely during prolonged cold spells.

Even so, the frozen Thames was never an annual event. Between 1400 and 1831 there were just 24 recorded winters when the river froze at London, roughly once a decade at most. The removal of old London Bridge in the 19th century and later embankment works deepened and sped up the flow, making a return to the great frost fairs highly unlikely.

The Bell Inn at Woodham Walter in Essex has stood at the heart of the village since the 16th century. Timber-framed and ...
16/02/2026

The Bell Inn at Woodham Walter in Essex has stood at the heart of the village since the 16th century. Timber-framed and low in profile, it reflects the building traditions of its time, with uneven rooflines and sturdy beams that speak of centuries of use.

Over the years its appearance has shifted in small but telling ways. Windows have been altered, extensions added, and the surrounding road changed from a quiet rural track to a busier modern route. Yet the inn’s essential character remains intact. Its weathered timbers and simple frontage still anchor the village scene much as they did in earlier views.

Like many country inns, The Bell has adapted to changing tastes and expectations while retaining its role as a social centre. Through shifting fashions and passing traffic, it continues to embody the steady continuity of an English village landmark.

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