Winston Churchill: wartime leadership, politics and legacy
Soldier, writer and prime minister, Churchill led Britain through the Second World War and remained a force in public life for decades.
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Isaac Newton: the laws that changed how we see the world
From a Lincolnshire childhood to Cambridge, the Royal Society and the Royal Mint, Newton joined mathematical theory to observation of the natural world.
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William Shakespeare: playwright, poet and actor
From Stratford-upon-Avon to the London stage, Shakespeare built a body of work that continues to be performed, translated and reinterpreted.
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Queen Victoria: monarch of a changing Britain
Her 63-year reign spanned political and industrial change at home and the expansion of the British Empire.
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Kew Gardens’ Temperate House: Victorian glass and living collections
Designed by Decimus Burton, Kew’s vast glasshouse combines Victorian engineering with a collection of more than 1,500 plant species.
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East London Tech City: how a cluster grew around Old Street
From web start-ups around Silicon Roundabout to a wider East London network, the area’s development joined private enterprise with public support.
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The HS2 High-Speed Rail Project
A high-speed rail scheme intended to connect London with the Midlands and North became a test of Britain’s transport ambitions and priorities.
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Birmingham New Street: Rebuilding a City’s Railway Hub
Completed in 2015, the station redevelopment reshaped a crowded concourse and brought new public and retail spaces to central Birmingham.
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The Snowdonia Slate Landscape
How Welsh quarries, communities and railways built an industry with an international reach.
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The Clyde Arc: Glasgow’s Squinty Bridge
Opened in 2006, this distinctive crossing links Finnieston with Pacific Quay and has become a familiar feature of the River Clyde.
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The Great Exhibition of 1851: industry and spectacle at the Crystal Palace
In Hyde Park, a vast iron-and-glass building brought machinery, art and objects from around the world before millions of visitors.
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The Thames Tideway Tunnel
London’s deep-level sewer project was designed to intercept storm overflows and reduce pollution in the Thames.
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Northern Powerhouse Rail: a proposed network for the North
A plan for faster links between northern cities, with wider ambitions for economic opportunity, access and regional connection.
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The Ordsall Chord: Manchester’s railway connection
A short link between Manchester’s central rail routes, built to improve through journeys but constrained by capacity elsewhere on the network.
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The London Gateway: port, railway and logistics park
Opened in 2013 on the Thames in Essex, London Gateway combines a deep-water port with rail, road and warehousing links.
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The Victoria and Albert Museum’s Exhibition Road Quarter
Opened in 2017, a new gallery, entrance hall and courtyard extended the V&A while adding contemporary public space in the heart of London.
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The London Eye: a new landmark on the Thames
Built for the millennium, the South Bank wheel became a striking way to see London from above.
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King’s Cross: a railway district remade
The redevelopment joined historic railway buildings to new homes, workplaces, education and public spaces in a changing London neighbourhood.
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The Kelpies: steel horses at the gateway to the Forth and Clyde Canal
Andy Scott’s monumental sculptures draw on Scotland’s industrial working horses and the folklore of shape-shifting water spirits.
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The Tees Transporter Bridge: a working monument to engineering
Across the River Tees, a moving gondola connects Middlesbrough and Port Clarence while preserving a distinctive solution to the demands of river traffic.
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Clifton Suspension Bridge: Brunel’s crossing of the Avon Gorge
Completed in 1864, the Bristol landmark carries traffic across the gorge on a design associated with Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
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The Manchester Ship Canal: Manchester’s route to the sea
Built to give an industrial city direct access to maritime trade, the canal reshaped transport and development across the Manchester region.
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The Birmingham Library: a civic space for learning
Opened in 2013 and designed by Mecanoo, Birmingham’s library combines collections, archives and digital facilities with spaces for public use.
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The National Health Service: care, innovation and a British ideal
Launched in 1948, the NHS made publicly funded healthcare a defining part of Britain’s post-war settlement.
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Tyne and Wear Metro: How a railway reshaped the North East
Built from older railway lines and new tunnels, bridges and stations, the Metro connected communities across Tyne and Wear from 1980.
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The Forth Road Bridge: a crossing that reshaped travel
Opened in 1964, the suspension bridge linked Edinburgh and Fife and remains a landmark of Scotland’s transport network.
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The Blackpool Tower: engineering, spectacle and seaside life
Opened in 1894, Blackpool Tower brought a high Victorian landmark together with views, dancing and circus entertainment.
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The Shard: how London’s skyline gained a new landmark
Renzo Piano’s 309.6-metre tower brought offices, a hotel, homes and a public observatory to London Bridge.
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The Cardiff Bay Barrage: reshaping a Welsh waterfront
Built to impound the Taff and Ely, the barrage created a freshwater lake and formed part of a major transformation of Cardiff’s waterfront.
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The Angel of the North: steel, scale and place
Antony Gormley’s monumental Gateshead sculpture stands on a former colliery site, joining the North East’s industrial past to a work of public art.
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The Falkirk Wheel: Scotland’s rotating link between two canals
Opened in 2002, the Falkirk Wheel reconnects the Forth and Clyde and Union canals with a lift powered by a carefully balanced system of water, gears and motors.
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The British Library: a national collection open to the world
Established as a separate institution in 1973, the British Library brings together historic collections, research resources and public programmes in London and online.
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Tate Modern: Bankside’s former power station, reimagined
Opened in 2000, the London gallery brings modern and contemporary art into a landmark industrial building.
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Glasgow Science Centre: science on the Clyde
Opened in 2001, Glasgow Science Centre brings interactive exhibits, educational activities and an IMAX cinema to the city’s waterfront.
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The Millennium Dome: from millennium exhibition to The O2
Built for the celebrations of 2000, the Thames-side structure later found a continuing role as a London venue for entertainment and sport.
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The Olympic Park: London’s Olympic legacy in East London
Built for the 2012 Games, the park brought sporting venues, green space and regeneration to Stratford and the surrounding area.
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The Eden Project: a garden built inside a former clay pit
Opened in Cornwall in 2001, the Eden Project brings contrasting plant environments together with public learning about nature and sustainability.
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The Severn Bridge
Opened in 1966, the bridge linked England and Wales with a distinctive design and a direct road crossing of the Severn.
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Crossrail and the Elizabeth Line: London Reconnected
A new railway route links western and eastern London, bringing together long-distance services, central tunnels and a series of rebuilt and new stations.
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The M25 Motorway
London’s orbital road connects routes, places and businesses around the capital, while its daily congestion reveals the demands of that role.
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