Bekonscot Model Village

Commendably, Bekonscot, one of the world’s earliest and most loved model villages, has not tried to embrace modern times. Although additions are made to the village all the time, all are set in aspic, as if it were still Jolly Olde England in the 1930s. Back then, the young Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret loved to visit this dinky little corner of England, about half an hour by train (to Beaconsfield) outside London. For years, Bekonscot was largely forgotten by anyone over the age of six, but is now, sadly a bit trendy, given that UK Vogue posed Erin O’Connor there for their 90th anniversary issue. Still, those with a taste for the quaint and the odd can still enjoy the burning house (look! real flames and smoke!) every five minutes and an entirely un-PC division between the rich and poor (the former in posh hotels with swimming pools, the latter in a coal mining village more akin to the Welsh valleys than the tranquil green of Buckinghamshire). Here is a microcosm of old England as it never was and in a perverse way, it is delightful.

Bekonscot, Beaconsfield> Take the train from Marylebone Station, London to Beaconsfield from whence it is clearly sign posted. It reopens after renovations Feb 2007