This place is simply magical. Run with love by entrepreneur and owner Richard Elkington, a…read moreconsummate networker who makes everyone feel welcome, young and old. It's my favourite music and arts venue locally and wonderful for meet-ups, whether personal or business. Richard has a wide variety of events taking place, with art in abundance, regular gigs, a writing group, a book group, backgammon and on Thursday mornings it becomes "Ivan's Home" as a tribute to Richard's brother which is aimed at people who want to meet other people in the community, or those who might feel lonely or isolated. Cakes, tea and coffee are available and Becky Willoughby, a friendly Counsellor is present if you want to chat. The food is lovely, the coffee excellent, the staff welcoming and it's far superior to the corporate chains which litter Chesham. Do yourself a favour and discover this gem of a place

Personally I cannot stand this place, although to be fair some of my friends love it…read more The concept of a relaxed but classy cafe cum art gallery in the centre of Chesham is a good one, but this place just doesn't deliver. The food is mediocre at best, but often pretty revolting; and more disturbingly one is confronted by the 'art' wherever you look. I'm no prude, but the art here is essentially women, naked, and LOTS of them. Everywhere you look there are pudenda and breasts gazing back at you! OK, nothing wrong with the naked body, it's often very beautiful, but to be this obsessed with naked women hints at a bit of a problem to me. Why isn't there any other art? Why are there no naked male models? Why do I have to look at these boobs and genitalia for an hour whilst eating my lunch?? Well actually no I don't, do I, so once been never go back in my case - see what you think!

I stumbled upon the What If Gallery whilst shopping in Dartford, and I was pleasantly surprised by…read morewhat I found. Dartford is a little lacking in places for artistic folk to display their creations so this for me was a welcome addition to the town centre. The gallery itself is situated in an old shop which was disused and awaiting redevelopment and is divided into several rooms. This is a perfect venue for local artists to show off their work and potentially sell some of it. On entering, I found the staff to be friendly and warm and enthusiastic about the project. As far as I know they are all volunteers. I enjoyed walking around the gallery - not only were there paintings on display but some craftwork and cards too. The great thing about this place is that not only do they encourage painting and art, and they hold some art classes here too, but I was told there is also a music rehearsal room for hire here at quite a competitive rate and I got the impression that they supported all other types of artistic expression and creativity too. A welcome addition to Dartford town centre and hopefully they will be able to find permanent premises before they have to move out when the redevelopment takes place.

This is a little gem of a place! Stanley Spencer is one of Britain's best loved painters and he…read moreused to live in this village. Somehow, there is this amazing gallery with some of his most famous work in this pretty village. I've been many, many times and I love it the same every time I come. It's not big but it's quite clever and delightful.

One half of a framing and picture-selling business, this is the "flagship store" of the mini-Lawson…read moreGallery empire (the other is the framing shop tucked away on Pound Hill). With a fantastic location opposite the entrance to King's College, this is a great place to come in and browse - and for that reason, if you want some buying advice, you may have to wait a while due to the sheer number of people who wander in. However, the staff do really know their stuff and are extremely helpful, even for novices who might feel a little intimidated. I first went in with only a vague idea of the kind of thing I wanted and came away with much useful information. Later, having bought the prints we wanted, we took them to the Lawson Framing Gallery and had them expertly mounted and framed.

From the owner: Artwork and Framingread more

Home & garden store, Local Art and Sculpture Gallery, Garden Design studio, Garden and Homeware,…read moreGifts and Plants, First class light refreshment facilities. Situated on an A426 between Rugby and Lutterworth, the calm within is amazing and the wealth of gift ideas and quality goods for home and garden. Visit their website and read about the history of the farm and, in particular the barn itself? It's an education. An absolute must, and my main reason for visiting regularly, is the refreshment area. It really is sublime. There is a small seating area right opposite the counter which, in the colder months, has a log burning fire. There is a larger and very comfortable seating area in an upstairs lounge with mixed seating.sofas, armchairs, tables.another log burning fire which is regularly attended to. Sink into one of the cozy chairs and watch the traffic pass yet at the same time feeling, as if perhaps, you are somewhere else? An impressive array of homemade cakes etc., awaits your attention when you place your order which, even if you choose to take a seat in the upstairs lounge, will be brought to you by a member of the pleasant staff. For a light lunch you may try their delcious homemade soup with a roll? I would be happy to recommend this establishment to my female contacts as a place for the unaccompanied traveller to stop and rest a while in a spotlessly clean and safe environment. Worth a detour!!

Garden store with a small cafe, the cafe has some lovely cakes and drinks. The owner is very…read morefriendly. The shop is full of interesting products which I love to fill my home with

The Fountain gallery is an asset to Bridge Road. We need somewhere like this. Although it is a…read moresmall shop it is amazingly effective. The premise is that it is a cooperative art gallery. It is collectively run by 18 artists who showcase their work here on alternate times. The Fountain Gallery also have guest artists. Usually each artist is allocated a certain period of time in which to showcase their work. I believe that the times are not fixed. Most artists seem to take it over for about a month. During this time they oversee the gallery, so customers can come and talk to the artists about their work. The art comes in a mixture of forms. Generally it is painted work, most in watercolours, sometimes there are photographers who exhibit their work. Occasionally there are potters. Although the gallery closes at 6, I have often walked past and seen open evenings, it is worth phoning ahead to find out what is on.

If you're a fan of accessible art and like making new discoveries this is a lovely little gallery…read morethat warrants a regular visit. It's a co-operative of many artists so the exhibitions change frequently and, as a bonus, are run by the artists themselves. Come here to enjoy the art in relaxing surroundings, perhaps with a glass of wine to enhance your pleasure. Talk to the artist and buy anything from a postcard to a limited-edition print or even a full-blown oil painting or sculpture. If you want to turn yourself into a work of art you can sometimes buy, or commission, a pretty piece of original jewellery too.

I love this family run gallery. Even though it is small it seems very special the moment you walk…read morein as you are greeted by usually Jake who is a very pleasant helpful young man. They have all sorts of art work from such artists as Kerry Darlington whos work I love (first award winning resin artist). Jake and co can also arrange to have home visits if you would like to see the piece of art you are interested in looks like in your home. You can also buy frames and some statues/ornaments from the gallery. So if you are looking for a peace of art and would like to deal with someone who is very nice and knowledgeable then go along to this little treasure.

I had a hard time rating this place but ultimately it captures the magic of Roald Dahls writing,…read moreits a lovely way to encourage creative writing in a world that seems to think all children's activities should be STEM based, and its highly interactive. Worth a visit. The downside : We were the only visitors other than a school group (maybe two school groups?) but both the educators and the staff made it clear that we weren't a priority. In one of the rooms a teacher left a child's epipen on a shelf at child-level and seemed to forget about it. They seemed displeased that my kids were interacting with the exhibits even though we were trying to keep out of the way. We had our 8, 5, and 2 year old with us. They all interacted with the museum and enjoyed it but it was a bit lost on my little ones. Definitely recommend reading several books before going. And the reason I'm leaving 3 stars not 4 is that the bathrooms were atrocious. Toilet paper everywhere. Stalls out of order. The baby change room smelled terrible.... Clearly the garbage hadn't been changed in days.... Really too bad for a place with so much potential.

On one of my last days living in London, my best friend and I took a day off work to make a trip…read moreout to this museum to relive our childhood days. Although this museum is supposed to be more for families and young children, my best friend and I went all out silly because we pretty much had this place to ourselves. Plenty of outfits and props from characters from the books we all love - we had so much fun putting them on and taking pictures. They have this thing called the Automatic Grammatizator where you can "see your story in lights". Basically, using random words from a pile, you create a story and it gets projected on the floor nearby. One of the best memories I have from my four years in the U.K!