871 Best Sights in England

West London's answer to Borough Market, this Saturday open-air market is in a pedestrian-only plaza off Duke of York Square, a chic shopping precinct. It hosts some 17 stalls purveying locally sourced or artisanal food products. Like Borough Market, this is a grazer's paradise, giving you the chance to sample gourmet fish-and-chips and Chinese dumplings as well as delicious street food from countries ranging from Peru to Jamaica.

Perched romantically on a cliff 100 feet above the shore, these castle ruins can be reached along a windy, mile-long coastal footpath that heads north from the tiny fishing village of Craster. Built in 1316 as a defense against the Scots, and later enlarged by John of Gaunt, the powerful duke of Lancaster who virtually ruled England in the late 14th century, the castle is known to many from the popular paintings by 19th-century artist J. M. W. Turner. The castle is a signposted 1¼-mile walk from the nearest parking lot in Craster. While Dunstanburgh is run by English Heritage, it's owned by the National Trust, so membership with either organization will get you in for free.

Facing the cathedral across Palace Green, Durham's stately, manorlike castle commands a strategic position above the River Wear. For almost 800 years the castle was the home of the enormously powerful prince-bishops; from here they ruled large tracts of the countryside and acted as the main line of defense against Scottish raiders from the north. Henry VIII was the first to curtail the bishops' autonomy, although it wasn't until the 19th century that they finally had their powers annulled. At that point, the castle was given over to the University of Durham, the third-oldest university in England after Oxford and Cambridge (albeit more than 600 years younger; it was founded in 1832). The castle interior, including the Great Hall with its stunning stained glass window and wooden beam ceiling, can be seen on a self-guided tour (with optional audio guides) during the summer. However, during the academic term, the interior can only be seen on a once-daily, 45-minute guided tour; check availability and book online. During university vacation times, the castle also offers bed-and-breakfast accommodations in the state rooms for around £115 per night; again, check the website for details.

This 18-acre park contains a plethora of plant life from Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The greenhouses shelter rare specimens, including a giant Amazonian water lily. Almost every weekend in summer there are family-friendly events ranging from picnics to storytelling sessions.

The 12th-century Eastbridge Hospital of St. Thomas (which would now be called a hostel) lodged pilgrims who came to pray at the tomb of Thomas Becket. It's a tiny place, fascinating in its simplicity. The refectory, the chapel, and the crypt are usually open to the public, but at this writing the hospital is closed for repairs (set to reopen summer 2025).

Remaining open are the Franciscan Gardens across the river. Named for the Italian order of friars who were gifted this land in 1224, the gardens have since been restored to their medieval glory. You can usually purchase a joint ticket for the Eastbridge Hospital and Franciscan Gardens, but until the hospital reopens, the ticket is for the gardens only.

Completed in 1820, Eastnor Castle, a turreted Norman-revival mock-castle extravaganza on the eastern outskirts of Ledbury, includes magnificent neo-Gothic salons designed by 19th-century architect Augustus Pugin. The Hervey-Bathurst family has restored other grand rooms, full of tapestries, gilt-framed paintings, Regency chandeliers, old armchairs, and enormous sofas, making Eastnor a must-see for lovers of English interior decoration. In the Little Library, look out for the rare game of Life Pool, originally played on the billiards table. The grounds include a knight’s maze and an adventure playground to keep kids entertained (along with an ice cream parlor). Opening days vary throughout the season; check the website before you visit. There are also two cottages and a campsite within the deer park.

In the heart of the Barbican section, this former sea captain's home dating from 1599 offers a fascinating insight into how Plymouth residents lived over 350 years ago. The three floors of the timber-frame house are filled with items connected to the people who inhabited the house, including 17th-century furnishings, 18th-century wigs (the house once belonged to a wig-maker), and tea sets. You'll also see a reconstructed kitchen and a spiral staircase built around a ship's mast.

A scenic one-hour ride on this preserved heritage railway from Skipton to Ilkley stops off at the station in Bolton Abbey. If you really enjoy your ride, you can even take a two-hour course on how to drive a steam train. Hours vary greatly, especially in spring and fall, so it's best to call ahead.

This highly successful local firm is known across Britain for its whimsical pottery designs. The hour-long factory tour (available on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday at 10 am; advance booking required) shows how Emma Bridgewater herself adapted 200-year-old techniques, and you can book a session in the decorating studio to try your hand at designs of your own. There's also a gift shop, a cute café, and a walled country-style garden in the summer.

The master hand of architect Sir Christopher Wren (1632–1723) is evident throughout much of Cambridge, particularly at Emmanuel, built on the site of a Dominican friary, where he designed the chapel and colonnade. A stained-glass window in the chapel has a likeness of John Harvard, founder of Harvard University, who studied here. The college, founded in 1584, was an early center of Puritan learning; a number of the Pilgrims were Emmanuel alumni, and they remembered their alma mater in naming Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Under different ownership than Whitby's 40%-scale model of Captain Cook's ship, this full-size version features 30-foot-tall masts. Kids can visit a re-creation of the captain's cabin and plot his journey on a magnetic map or learn how to tie nautical knots. Other exhibits convey what the ship's medical, sanitation, sail-making, and disciplinary facilities would have been like. There's also a restaurant (not authentic) on-board.

Less wild and forbidding than Dartmoor to its south, 267-square-mile Exmoor National Park is no less majestic for its bare heath and lofty views. The park extends right up to the coast and straddles the county border between Somerset and Devon. Some walks offer spectacular views over the Bristol Channel. Taking one of the more than 700 miles of paths and bridle ways through the bracken and heather (at its best in fall), you might glimpse the ponies and red deer for which the region is noted. Be careful: the proximity of the coast means that mists and squalls can descend with alarming suddenness.

At this charming pedestrianized thoroughfare, trendy clothing boutiques, jewelers, beauty salons, gift shops, and even a tattoo parlor all jostle for space with Exmouth Market's excellent cafés and restaurants, many of which offer outdoor seating. At its southern end is the 19th-century Church of Our Most Holy Redeemer, the only Italian basilica–style church in London. There's also a vibrant food market on weekdays serving gourmet street food. Look out for the brilliantly named barber shop, Barber Streisand.

This museum, one of six sites that make up the National Museum of the Royal Navy, is located in a Georgian building used by the Royal Navy to store weapons and ammunition since 1771. It explores the history of warfare at sea with interactive touch-screen exhibits on naval armaments, from cannonballs to mines, missiles, torpedoes, and even a decommissioned nuclear bomb. The museum also tells the story of the local people who manufactured the weapons. It can be reached by water bus from the Historic Dockyard, 

After a local tailor died of the plague in this tiny, idyllic, gray-stone village in 1665, locals isolated themselves from the outside world rather than risk the spread of Black Death (the area had hitherto been spared). They succeeded in containing the disease, but at huge cost; by the time it had run its course, most of the residents were dead. Their heroism is commemorated in florid memorials in the village churchyard. The small Eyam Museum puts everything into context, while the stately home Eyam Hall hosts tours (check the website for opening times as Eyam Hall closes intermittently throughout the year).

This elegant, beautifully decorated Georgian town house, with its crystal chandeliers, silk damask wallpaper, and one of the country's finest collections of 18th-century furniture, provides a glimpse of how polite 18th-century society lived, with particular attention to their tastes in architecture, interior decoration, food, and furnishings. Entrance on Fridays is restricted to guided tours at 11 and 2.

This quirky little museum is as fascinating and varied as the uniquely prized object whose artistry it seeks to chronicle. The simple fan is more than a mere fashion accessory; historically, fans can tell as much about craftsmanship and social mores as they can about fashion. Five thousand of them make up the collection, dating from the 17th century onward, often exquisitely crafted from ivory, mother-of-pearl, and tortoiseshell. It was the personal vision of Hélène Alexander that brought this enchanting museum into being, and the workshop and conservation–study center that she has also set up ensure that this art form continues to have a future.

Regular boat trips from the little village of Seahouses, 3 miles down the coast from Bamburgh, provide access to the Farne Islands with their impressive colonies of seabirds—including puffins, kittiwakes, terns, shags, and guillemots—and barking groups of gray seals. Inner Farne, where St. Cuthbert, the great abbot of Lindisfarne, died in AD 687, has a tiny chapel. Look out for the ruined lighthouse beacons as you pass Brownsman Island. A few companies are licensed to make the trip to Farne and the other islands, including Billy Shiel's Boat Trips ( www.farne-islands.com), Serenity ( www.farneislandstours.co.uk), and Golden Gate ( facebook.com/GoldenGateFarneIslandBoatTrips). All boat services leave from Seahouses Harbor; look for the tiny booth selling tickets or the outlet in the main village parking lot. Each company offers a variety of other cruises, such as seal-spotting expeditions and Lindisfarne landing trips, which vary from 90 minutes to 4½ hours; check the websites. In addition to the cost of the boat trip, Inner Farne has a National Trust landing fee of £13 (May through September).

The bright yellow-and-pink museum (it's hard to miss) designed by Mexican architect Ricardo Legorreta features changing exhibitions devoted to developments in fashion design, textiles, and jewelry from the end of World War II to the present. Founded by designer Zandra Rhodes, and now owned by Newham College, the FTM is a favorite with anyone interested in the history of style. There are weekday fashion-based workshops and lectures on design and aspects of fashion history; the excellent gift shop sells books on fashion and one-of-a-kind pieces by local designers. After your visit, check out the many restaurants, cafés, and boutiques that have blossomed on Bermondsey Street.

This handsome 17th-century merchant's home, Hampstead's oldest surviving house, has fine collections of ceramics, early keyboard instruments, and 17th-century needlework. The 2-acre walled garden, with its rose plantings and 32 varieties of apples and pears in the orchard, has remained virtually unchanged for 300 years and is a delightful refuge from the surrounding urban roar. Booking tickets in advance for a visit to the house is required as entry is by timed ticket only; you can stop by and visit the garden without booking in advance.

In 1960, workers digging a water-main ditch uncovered a Roman wall, thus beginning a decade of painstaking archaeological excavation of this site, which revealed the remains of the largest, grandest Roman villa in Britain. Intricate mosaics (including Cupid riding a dolphin) and painted walls lavishly decorate what is left of many of the 100 rooms of the palace, built in the 1st century AD, possibly for local chieftain Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus. You can explore the sophisticated bathing and heating systems, along with the only example of a Roman garden in northern Europe. An extension has added many modern attributes, including a video reconstruction of how the palace might have looked. The site is 1½ miles west of Chichester town center, a 30-minute walk.

Facing due west, this favorite of serious surfers is a long stretch of flat, soft sand, renowned for its powerful tides and strong currents. Surf shops rent equipment and offer lessons on the beach, or you can just check out the scene. Lifeguards watch the water in summer, and there are cafés and shops selling beach supplies. The beach is at the western edge of Newquay. Amenities: food and drink; lifeguards; parking (fee); toilets; water sports. Best for: partiers; surfing; swimming.

Compact, highly visual, and engaging, this museum on the grounds of St. Thomas's Hospital is dedicated to Florence Nightingale, who founded the first school of nursing and played a major role in establishing modern standards of health care. Exhibits are divided into three areas: one is devoted to Nightingale's Victorian childhood, the others to her work tending soldiers during the Crimean War (1854–56) and her subsequent health-care reforms, including a display on how she developed a program for training nurses. The museum incorporates Nightingale's own books, her famous lamp, and even her pet owl Athena (now stuffed), as well as interactive displays of medical instruments and medicinal herbs. There are temporary exhibitions and a shop with unexpectedly amusing gifts like syringe-shape highlighters.

From the outside, this moated castle looks much as it would have in the 12th century. Upon entering, however, you'll notice that the keep is missing. In addition, although it still has 13 towers along the curtain wall, most of the chimneys along the same wall are Tudor additions meant to give the impression to passersby that this was a great mansion. Today Framlingham is a peaceful place, except in summer, when it's an occasional venue for open-air concerts.

The castle gradually fell into disrepair in the mid-1500s but not before it played its part in a pivotal moment in English history. After the death of Edward VI (Henry VIII's 15 year-old son), a succession crisis ensued, as, for the first time in English history, the only heirs to the throne were women. This sparked a battle between Mary (Edward's Catholic older sister) and Jane Grey, her teenage cousin, who was declared Queen by Protestant lords hoping to stage a coup. Mary, who was hopelessly outnumbered, fortified herself at Framlingham. Within just nine days she had rallied the great lords and ordinary folk alike to her cause, won the war, and taken back the crown.

The father of psychoanalysis lived here with his family for the last year of his life after his 1938 escape from Nazi persecution in his native Vienna. His daughter Anna (herself a pioneer of child psychoanalysis) remained in the house until her own death in 1982, bequeathing it as a museum to honor her father's life and work. The centerpiece is Freud's unchanged study, which houses his remarkable collection of antiquities and his library. Also on display is the family's Biedermeier furniture—including, of course, the famous couch. As well, there are lectures, study groups, and theme exhibitions, in addition to a psychoanalysis-related archive and research library. Looking for a unique souvenir? The gift shop here sells "Freudian Slippers" with an image of the Freud's face. Admission is by prebooked time slot only.

In 1902, the Guild of Handicraft took over this former silk mill, and Arts and Crafts evangelist Charles Robert Ashbee (1863–1942) brought 150 acolytes from London, including 50 guildsmen, to revive and practice such skills as cabinetmaking and bookbinding. The operation folded in 1920, but the refurbished building now houses this cooperative artist-run gallery showing and selling beautiful glass, ceramics, paintings, sculptures, textiles and more on the ground floor. The longtime silversmith Hart is also in the building. 

This celebration of one of Britain's favorite hobbies was created in the mid-1970s after two gardening enthusiasts came upon a medieval church, which, they were horrified to discover, was about to be bulldozed. The churchyard contained the tombs of two adventurous 17th-century plant collectors, a father and son both called John Tradescant, who introduced many new species to England, as well as the tombs of William Bligh, captain of the Bounty, several members of the Boleyn family, and quite a few archbishops of Canterbury.

Inspired to action, the gardeners rescued the church and created the museum now inside it. Here you'll find one of the largest collections of historic garden tools, artifacts, and curiosities in Britain, plus photographs, paintings, and films—virtually all donated by individuals. An extension houses temporary exhibitions on subjects ranging from noted garden designers like Charles Jencks to the contemporary Guerrilla Gardening movement (cultivating neglected public land). There's also a green-thumb gift shop, a glass-fronted café, and, of course, the museum's own four beautiful gardens that are maintained year-round by dedicated volunteers. The church's medieval tower is now open to visitors who wish to climb its 131 steps to take in the views across the Thames to Westminster.

The winding B3306 coastal road southwest from St. Ives passes through some of Cornwall's starkest yet most beautiful countryside. Barren hills crisscrossed by low stone walls drop abruptly to granite cliffs and wide bays. Evidence of the tin-mining industry is everywhere. Now a fascinating mining heritage center, the early-20th-century Geevor Tin Mine employed 400 men, but, in 1985, the collapse of the world tin market wiped Cornwall from the mining map. Wear sturdy footwear for the surface and underground tours. A museum, shop, and café are at the site.

John Pinney, the owner of a Caribbean sugar plantation and the many enslaved people who labored there, lived at this refined address at the end of the 18th century, and the house has been restored and furnished according to how it might have appeared then. The 11 rooms in the house's four floors showcase the contrasting lifestyles of those who lived upstairs, enjoying elegant reception areas and bed chambers, and those who lived below, working in the kitchen and washing up in the basement's cold-water plunge bath. One room provides context on Pinney's—and Bristol's—role in the slave trade.

This tour for "boils and ghouls" takes a slightly tongue-in-cheek approach to the haunted locations, employing props, illusion, jokes, and audience participation. The tours start at 7:30 pm nightly in the Shambles.