x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

Your Places or Mine

Clive Aslet & John Goodall

A podcast about places and buildings, with tales about history and people. From author and publisher Clive Aslet and the architectural editor of Country Life, & John Goodall

history places & travel

All Episodes

59:54

Perhaps The Finest Street In Europe - The History of...

Your Places or Mine ·

2026/04/25

Send us Fan Mail ‘Let’s all go down the Strand!’ ran a popular music hall song. But what sort of street were they singing about? The future Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli called it ‘perhaps the finest street in Europe’ in 1847. Which is quite a claim to live up to. Certainly the Strand, one of London’s most famous and important thoroughfares, has had a long and colourful history, with much shape-shifting over the centuries. John and Clive reveal the secrets of ...

en-gb

58:28

Last of The Laskett? A Great British Garden Under...

Your Places or Mine ·

2026/04/19

Send us Fan Mail The Laskett in Herefordshire is one of the most remarkable gardens to have been created in the 20th century but now it’s future is threatened. Sir Roy Strong, scholar, museum director and the author of over 70 erudite books, and his theatre-designer wife Julia Trevelyan Oman created it as a bolt hole from London, beginning in 1973 – a bleak time of industrial unrest and inflation. It grew to become the largest formal garden made in the UK since the Second World Wa...

en-gb

60:21

Story of Ampleforth Chapel, Yorkshire, Masterpiece of...

Your Places or Mine ·

2026/04/11

Send us Fan Mail One of the most famous Catholic schools in Britain, Ampleforth College in Yorkshire this year celebrates the centenary of its chapel, designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. Scott has emerged in recent years as a colossus of 20th-century architecture, bestriding it alike with his religious buildings – notably the Anglican cathedral in Liverpool – and his secular designs, such as Battersea Power Station and the familiar red telephone kiosk. John describes the remarkab...

en-gb

60:17

John Kinross' Manderston: A Symbol of Edwardian England

Your Places or Mine ·

2026/03/21

Send us Fan Mail Few houses better convey the opulence of Edwardian country house life than Manderston in the Scottish Borders. Built in the first years of the 20th century, it is an exquisite work of the scholarly architect John Kinross – which has always been kept up to the high standards set by Kinross’s client, the racehorse owner Sir James Miller. Clive reveals a particular affection for Kinross because he knew his son, also called John Kinross, when the latter was an old but sprig...

en-gb

57:08

The History of Norwich: Conquest, Castle and Cathedral

Your Places or Mine ·

2026/03/14

Send a text The fascinating city of Norwich, capital of Norfolk, was one of the richest town in England during the Middle Ages. The cathedral dates from the early Norman period, as does the Castle which has recently been magnificently redisplayed. As Britain’s preeminent historian of the architecture of the Middle Ages, John has of course been to see it, and provides a superb commentary. Clive does his best to keep up by describing a Victoria roller-skating rink which now ho...

en-gb

60:32

Archer's Masterpiece: The Building and Rebuilding of...

Your Places or Mine ·

2026/03/07

Send a text

en-gb

56:47

Northumberland's Treasure: The History of Alnwick Castle

Your Places or Mine ·

2026/02/26

Send a text Alnwick Castle in Northumberland is one of the most spectacular castles in England, an immense fortification that guarded the border with Scotland for centuries. The Percy family who built it had almost king-like power over their territory – and were not above rebelling against the king himself: the impetuous Harry Hotspur was killed fighting against Henry IV at the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403, while his wily father feigned illness. John describes the history and sett...

en-gb

61:56

Plinths, Columns and Controversy: The History of...

Your Places or Mine ·

2026/02/13

Send a text Trafalgar Square has long been regarded as the centre of London. It wasn’t always. John describes its medieval configuration when it was still countryside – hence the name of James Gibbs’s church St Martin in the Fields. This was where Richard II kept his hawks in the royal mews. A square was proposed by the Prince Regent’s architect John Nash but not in the form we have it today. The proximity of a barracks kept public order. What about the monument that dominat...

en-gb

60:32

Detmar Blow: Disciple of Ruskin, Champion of the Arts...

Your Places or Mine ·

2026/02/06

Send us a text Detmar Blow was one of the brightest stars of the Arts and Crafts Movement – but his story is also dark and mysterious. A pupil of the Kensington School of Art, where he met Lutyens – a lifelong friend – he won a travelling scholarship to draw cathedrals in France. At Abbeville, he had a chance encounter with the great Victorian sage aesthete John Ruskin, then in the decline of his old age. Blow escorted Ruskin to the Alps and imbibed his radical philosophy.&n...

en-gb

62:44

THE HISTORY OF WINDSOR CASTLE (PART 2) – FROM CHARLES...

Your Places or Mine ·

2026/01/30

Send us a text This week John takes Clive through Windsor Castle, a creation not just of the Middle Ages (subject of part 1 of this series) but of successive monarchs since the Restoration of Charles II in 1660. George III, a King who had been trained in architecture, made it into a family home, before being confined here during his years of madness. Typically, his eldest son George IV had bigger ideas, employing Jeffry Wyatt to revamp the castle after 1824. This included a ...

en-gb

57:09

The Crisis of Liverpool Street Station (EMERGENCY...

Your Places or Mine ·

2026/01/23

Send us a text This week John and Clive are frothing with disapproval at Network Rail’s plan to upgrade Liverpool Street Station. It is proposed that this will be funded by a development which will impose an out-of-scale tower at the entrance to the station, which will deprive the concourse of natural light and destroy the surroundings. What a pity. Liverpool Street was brilliantly reimagined in the late 1980s, to make a virtually new station so much in the spirit of the old...

en-gb

59:32

Flushed with Pride: The History of the Lavatory

Your Places or Mine ·

2026/01/16

Send us a text This week John and Clive present their long-awaited podcast on one of the most essential but least discussed rooms in any dwelling – the lavatory. Or (because no object in English or any other language is subject to so many euphemisms and circumlocutions) the necessary, the little house, the smallest room, the going place, the jakes, the john, the pissing place, the bog, the toilet…the list goes on. Although it fulfils a universal need, the loo has taken many forms ...

en-gb

57:03

Sin, Sculpture and Scandal: What is the Truth about...

Your Places or Mine ·

2026/01/08

Send us a text Sir Francis Dashwood, who used to dress as a Franciscan monk and allegedly took part in orgies in the ruins of Medmenham Abbey, was one of the most notorious libertines of the 18th century. Is this a correct depiction of his character? John thinks not. Instead, he acquired his dubious reputation as a result of slurs cast by his political enemies, which Sir Francis, who didn’t care what anyone else thought about him, chose to ignore. His refusal to stoop ...

en-gb

58:22

The History of Exeter Cathedral: From Norman to Now

Your Places or Mine ·

2025/12/25

Send us a text In this episode of Your Places or Mine, Clive Aslet and John Goodall head west to Exeter Cathedral, one of England’s most distinctive medieval churches. From its extraordinary uninterrupted Gothic vault — the longest of its kind in the world — to its weathered towers and richly layered history, they explore how this cathedral grew, adapted and survived centuries of change. Along the way, they swap stories about bishops, builders and bold design choices, uncovering why Exeter fe...

en-gb

52:03

The Bank of England: Soane, Baker and the Most...

Your Places or Mine ·

2025/12/19

Send us a text 2025 celebrates the rebuilding of the Bank of England by Sir Herbert Baker – if celebrate is the right word. It remains one of the most controversial projects in 20th century architecture. Baker’s name has been irredeemably blackened for his presumption in destroying the Bank of England created by Sir John Soane a century before. Clive and John revive the debate, describing the history of this great symbol of British finance and might, asking whether Baker has...

en-gb

62:30

Chim-Chiminee: The History of the Chimney

Your Places or Mine ·

2025/12/11

Send us a text This is the time of year when thoughts turn to mince pies, Christmas shopping, mulled wine – and chimneys, whether it is to settle around a roaring hearth or hope that Father Christmas pays a visit. So John and Clive are turning their attention to the development of this architectural form, beginning with the appearance of walled fireplaces in the Norman period. Chimneys reached a zenith of fantasy under the Tudors, when astounding feats of decoration were achieved ...

en-gb

61:41

Vanbrugh at 300: Celebrating The Life and Times of...

Your Places or Mine ·

2025/12/04

Send us a text In today's episode of Your Places or Mine, John is joined by the inimitable Charles Saumarez Smith who divulges all he knows about the architect Sir John Vanbrugh in anticipation of the 300th anniversary of his death. Discover the remarkable life and legacy of Sir John Vanbrugh — playwright, architect, and one of the most unconventional figures of the English Baroque. From his daring comedies to his groundbreaking designs like Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard, John and Charles...

en-gb

74:21

Journalists and Gentlemen: How the Georgian Group...

Your Places or Mine ·

2025/11/28

Send us a text The founding of the Georgian Group in 1937 was a milestone in the movement to save beautiful architecture. With an anniversary around the corner, Clive and John discuss how the Group emerged from the parent organisation, the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, and why it was needed. They reveal the extraordinary extent to the destruction inflicted on Georgian London after the First World War. Not even town palaces, Georgian square or the works of ...

en-gb

62:44

The Tale of Parliament Part 2 - The House of Lords

Your Places or Mine ·

2025/11/20

Send us a text Last week’s Your Places of Mine celebrated the rebuilding of the House of Commons after the original interior was bombed during one of the last raids of the Blitz. This week, Clive and John consider the Palace of Westminster, otherwise known as the Houses of Parliament, as a whole. After the old Palace had been all but destroyed by fire in 1834, Charles Barry won the competition to rebuild it, producing a building that may have shortened his life but is surely one of the ...

en-gb

62:24

The History of The House of Commons - A Venerable...

Your Places or Mine ·

2025/11/14

Send us a text On May 10, 1941, an incendiary bomb destroyed the seat of British democracy, the chamber of the House of Commons. This was not the first time fire had struck the Palace of Westminster: most of it had already been rebuilt after a disastrous fire of 1834, caused not by enemy action but the burning of obsolete tally sticks – a medieval system of accounting which symbolised the antiquated nature of the place. Seventy-five years ago the House of Commons reopened, and Joh...

en-gb

51 results

Similar Podcasts

The Old Front Line

Paul Reed

Today In History with The Retrospectors

The Retrospectors

جنود خلدهم التاريخ

ALSUMOOD PODCAST

Film History - Daily

Inception Point Ai

Madonna - Biography Flash

Inception Point Ai