Britain’s palaces and stately homes are empty
That’s quite nice for the people living in them
“SOMETIMES WHEN I’m here early in the morning, it’s like some kind of scene from ‘Brideshead Revisited’...this huge great rambling medieval palace, with the gardens slowly becoming overgrown, and there’s just a couple of people walking around.” Graham Dillamore (pictured), gardens and estates operations manager at Hampton Court Palace, Henry VIII’s favourite residence, is enjoying an experience which few have ever had before: being almost alone in a palace. The absence of visitors, he says, may have encouraged supernatural occupants to come out. “I keep looking behind me, and hearing footsteps.”
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “A palace of one’s own”
Britain May 23rd 2020
- London may have gone into a covid-accelerated decline
- Britain’s palaces and stately homes are empty
- Walkers and cyclists are using the covid-19 crisis to swipe road space
- Why the NHS will not be back to normal for a very long time
- As debt soars, the cost of servicing it keeps falling
- The pandemic is dividing Britons, not uniting them
Discover more
Are British voters as clueless as Labour’s intelligentsia thinks?
How the idea of false consciousness conquered the governing party
The best British companies to work for to get ahead
A new ranking of firms by pay, promotions and hiring practices
How the best British employers find and promote their staff
No degree? Some employers care much less than others
A Northern Irish experiment in recycling
The tiny island aiming to get to net zero
A sticking-plaster policy for Britain’s strained courts
Magistrates get more power. Will they get punch-drunk on it?