The De La Warr Pavilion, in the English seaside resort of Bexhill-on-Sea, is one of Britain's most significant twentieth century buildings, designed in the International Style by Eric Mendelsohn and Serge Chermayeff. In 1933 the mayor of the Bexhill-on-Sea, Earl De La Warr, commissioned a competition to design a seaside pavilion for the town with a budget of £80,000 for the construction of the winning design. Today, the De La Warr Pavilion stands out as an enduring legacy of Earl De La Warr, a building which serves as an internationally-respected contemporary arts venue.  The design of the Pavilion still seems fresh and modern today, remarkable for a building that is nearly eighty years old; proving the incredible vision of Eric Mendlesohn and Serge Chermayeff. Read more »

Each day, at ten, twelve, three and six o'clock, the Queen Mary's whistles (or sirens) echo across Long Beach Harbour. In publicity material produced in 1936 to mark the Queen Mary entering service for the Cunard-White Star Line, the company proudly stated that "keyed to lower bass 'A', the sirens of the 'Queen Mary' can be heard at a distance of at least 10 miles" and that "the reverberations keep on going and can be detected from fifty to a hundred miles away!". Today, her sirens are driven by compressed air rather than steam; the Queen Mary no longer can produce her own power, all five boiler rooms and the forward engine room were 'gutted' during her conversion. Read more »

44 years ago, at 2:28pm on Wednesday 20 September a new Cunard Line ship was launched by the Queen at the Clydeside John Brown Shipyard in Scotland.  Plans for the new Cunard liner dated back to the early 1950s as the Cunard Line started to consider options for replacements for the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. Although popular and successful the Queens were built as North Atlantic express liners and with the advent of affordable air travel passenger numbers on the express run between Europe and North America were falling. Read more »

The Art Deco movement began in Europe in the early decades of the 20th century. Art Deco design drew on many different influences - stylised plants and flowers from the natural world and design motifs from ancient civilisations such as Greece, Rome and Egypt - translated with an emphasis on geometric shapes and forms. Art Deco design made its way into everyday objects from clothes and furniture to building design. Today the buildings of Art Deco Britain form a unique heritage of this design and cultural movement. Read more »

In 1986 the RAF's last Avro Vulcan bomber was retired. The aircraft, XH558 continued as a display aircraft, before being sold in 1993. For the next fourteen years she remained grounded. In 1997 an ambitious plan to return her to flight began. Ten year later, with over £7 million of funding, XH558 took to the sky. The story is one of skill and devotion of individuals and organisations, determined to return the aircraft to the sky. This story is repeated across Britain; there is a whole "industry" devoted to keeping our historic military British Aviation Icons airworthy. Read more »

Across the world there are over 600 memorials in 26 countries to those who died in the sinking of the Titanic. In many towns and cities associated with the ship - her Belfast birthplace and Liverpool and Southampton where many of her crew came from - the sense of collective grief experienced by those populations was unheard of. With passengers coming from across the country to travel on the Titanic, whether on holiday, business or to start a new life in America, it is difficult to find any part of the country not touched by the loss of the Titanic. Read more »

The German captial of Berlin is home to nearly 3 ½ million people and is one of Europe's most vibrant and dynamic cities. It is a city of contrasts with the modern area around Potsdamer Platz; the Communist era Alexanderplatz; the famous, historic Museumsinsel UNESCO World Heritage Site; and the Tiergarten, one of Berlin's many parks and open spaces. Of all European capital cities Berlin has arguably witnessed the most turbulent history in living memory. Yet Berlin has emerged stronger and more united, at the very heart of Europe. Read more »