- For a look at some of the most impressive ornamental Victorian cast ironwork around, look no further than the interior of Crossness Pumping Station which features four original working pumping engines with an octagonal structure at the centre elaborately painted in French grey, Indian red and vermilion.
- The atrium at the National Museum of Scotland is a beautiful Victorian birdcage-style structure which was designed by Royal Engineer Captain Francis Fowke, architect of the Albert Hall. The light-filled atrium of the Grand Gallery features iron and glass painted white and gold, and is one of the most beautiful unsung spaces in Scotland.
- As far as staircases go, the Geometric Staircase at St Paul's Cathedral is an architectural treasure and one of the lesser-known glories of the famous cathedral. Officially known as the Dean's Staircase, the spiral staircase was built in 1705 and links the cathedral floor to the triforium with its 88 stone treads.
Once the main room for entertaining, the Gallery at Horace Walpole's spectacular Gothic castle, Strawberry Hill in Twickenham, features walls hung with a rich crimson Norwich damask and an ornate fan vaulted ceiling of gold and white plaster and papier mâché, which was designed in the style of the Henry VII Chapel in Westminster Abbey.
Built in 1838, the immense No. 3 Covered Slip at The Historic Dockyard Chatham was the largest wide span timber structure in Europe. Its amazing cantilever roof was built to the design of shipwright Sir Robert Seppings and has over 400 windows. You can admire the construction of the roof from the internal mezzanine floor constructed in 1901 to store ship's boats.
- Admire a mix of Art Deco and cutting-edge Swedish design in the eye-catching domed entrance hall at Eltham Palace, where prestigious guests gathered for glamorous cocktail parties. Socialites and politicians, royals and artists all enjoyed hospitality here. The interior of the hall was designed by Rolf Engströmer and features curved walls depicting scenes of Roman soldiers and Viking, as well as Florentine and Venetian palaces.
Commissioned in 1881 and one of the last designs William Burges produced before he died, the Arab Room in Cardiff Castle has a ceiling known as a muquarnas ceiling, made from wood then covered with pure gold leaf and decorated. The windows were inspired by Egyptian designs and each has a crystal ball in front to reflect the light onto the ceiling. The beautiful room is a lavishly decorated gem in the castle and one of its unique themed rooms.
- Designed in 1850 by William Butterfield, an architect strongly associated with Gothic revival church building, All Saints Margaret Street has a richly decorated interior with inlays of marble and tile and is a true hidden gem in the streets of central London. There is no part of the church walls left undecorated and their dazzling design includes a series of paintings depicting figures from the Old Testament, a central Nativity scene and depictions of Early Church Fathers.
- At England’s greatest Elizabethan house, you can step into heaven in a beautifully painted room by artist Antonio Verrio. Burghley House's Heaven Room is acclaimed as Verrio’s masterpiece and is filled with scenes from ancient mythology. The perspective so deceiving that one can almost believe in the sculptural details. The adjoining Hell Staircase is dark and lofty, showing the mouth of Hell as the enormous gaping mouth of a cat, with countless souls in torment within.
This Victorian brick-built structure was created between 1868 and 1869 and was known as Hornsey Wood Reservoir, located under one of London's most famous parks. It now acts as an overflow for Thames Water but due to structural damage it lays redundant as it awaits repair. Finsbury Park Underground Reservoir is a huge space measuring over 100 metres long and 50 metres wide.
Discovered in 1835, Margate’s Shell Grotto is an astonishing find. Its winding passages are decorated with 4.6 million shells and the unique walls are covered with images of gods and goddesses, trees of life and patterns of cockle, whelks, mussels and oysters. Local legend says the Shell Grotto was discovered by chance 180 years ago, when in 1835 Mr James Newlove lowered his young son Joshua into a hole in the ground that had appeared during the digging of a duck pond. Joshua emerged describing tunnels covered with shells.
After travelling to Turkey and Syria, artist Frederic Leighton collected textiles, pottery and other objects to line the walls of his Arab Hall at Leighton House. Constructed in 1877, the room was modelled on the interior of a 12th century Sicilio-Norman palace called La Zisa in Sicily. Mosaics and marbles were sourced in London and the gold mosaic frieze was made up in Venice.