10 reasons why Britain is best in winter / The UK

Forget summer. Winter’s here, and here are some great ways to take the chill out of winter

1. Stroll back in time as London awakes.
A walk around the City of London provides fragments of a long past world, a time when the city teemed with life and people lived and worked in a complex network of communities, organised around its trade, markets and churches. Visit early on a winter morning and, in stark contrast to normal daily life, all will be still, empty and quiet. It’s a time when lurking ghosts, like that of Marley in Dickens’s Christmas Carol, fill the empty courts, squares and churchyards. In Spitalfields, people often make their way to 18 Folgate Street – an early 18th-centuryhouse transformed by the artist Dennis Severs into a weird and wonderful time-machine. It takes you on a helter-skelter trip into a rich history of London and of Spitalfields, a world of Huguenot silk weavers, frightful poverty and Jack the Ripper. The house is a powerful and personal evocation of the past. It’s quite an experience.

2. Snowballs and sledging.
Look at the beauty of the snow, the gentle way it cascades out of the clouds down to the ground. When it snows in the West Highlands village, the children congregate at a big brae and go sledging on trays, careering into trees. It is such fun.

3. The coast of North Norfolk.
The Norfolk coastline reminds of the peace of the polar regions. There’s a tremendous amount of wildlife – seals, tons of fish, even Minke whales – and over 200 shipwrecks. To walk through that peaceful scenery, knowing that...

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