Landmarks and national parks

In 1895, a small group of volunteers founded the National Trust, an organisation that has since grown into one of Britain's best-known charities, its work far larger in scale now than those first beginnings suggest.

Television gave the public a chance to weigh in on the country's scenery, and viewers picked Wastwater as their favourite view in 2007. It was a straightforward public vote, decided by people watching at home rather than by any panel of experts, and the result has stuck: Wastwater is still mentioned whenever the country's best-loved landscapes come up.

The clock tower at the Houses of Parliament tells a different kind of landmark story. It was formally named Elizabeth Tower in 2012, marking Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee, giving the familiar structure and its famous clock face an official name it had not carried before.