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London, United Kingdom
Lacy Gallery / Pippa Small
A frame dealer's son and an anthropologist-turned-jeweler hold down neighboring pink and yellow shopfronts on Westbourne Grove.
From the CommunityClassic Facades
The stunners contained within this theme scream AWA. Guess what, they are all real places, each with a story to tell. We invite you to explore some of the most "classic" spots around the globe.
Corfu, Greece
Banknote Museum of the Ionian Bank
Greece's first bank issued banknotes in Spanish dollars for a British protectorate; now its HQ displays a 100 billion drachma note.
From the Community
Tehran, Iran
National Garden Gate
Tehran's pre-Azadi icon: a gate to a garden that barely existed, where a bugler once announced dawn and dusk to the city.
From the Community
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States
Farmers Public Market
Built to end a farmer-versus-business feud, this 1928 market hosted Count Basie upstairs and produce vendors downstairs.
From the Community
Kohukohu, New Zealand
Tauteihiihi Marae
This marae has outlasted Kohukohu's timber boom, when 2,000 people lived on land literally built from kauri sawdust.
From the Community
Yucatán, Mexico
Convento de San Antonio da Padua
The world's second-largest atrium was built in six months by 6,000 Maya workers—using stones from their own demolished pyramid.
From the Community
Corfu, Greece
Corfu
The only Greek island never conquered by the Ottomans, Corfu's Venetian soul survived four centuries of sieges.
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Vienna, Austria
Louis Vuitton Vienna
Julius Meinl kept one store when selling 700+ locations. Louis Vuitton now occupies the building next door to it.
From the Community
Kashan, Iran
Mahinestan Raheb Hotel
A Qajar mansion with three courtyards (one for family, one for guests, one for servants) now welcomes everyone equally.
From the Community
Broc, Switzerland
Maison Cailler
This 1898 chocolate factory powered an entire Swiss village: its hydroelectric plant brought electricity to Broc in 1899. What a uniquely sweet history!
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Odense, Denmark
Hans Christian Andersen’s Childhood Home
The home of the most popular Dane & his 168 fairytales.
AWA visted here
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Odense, Denmark
Klods Hans
Named after Andersen's 1855 tale of a "stupid" brother who wins a princess with mud, dead crows, and a wooden shoe.
AWA visted here
Presented with
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Kerkira, Greece
Tobacco House 1941
Since 1941, this family tobacco shop has outlasted an empire of smoke.
From the Community
Gressoney-Saint-Jean, Italy
Pasticceria Gran Bar Follis Dario
A medieval Germanic dialect survives in an Italian valley, eight centuries after the migration over the Alps.
From the Community
Miami, Florida, United States
The Carlyle
This Ocean Drive hotel has appeared in more films than some actors.
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Monteroni di Lecce, Italy
Chiesa dei Santi Medici Cosma e Damiano
A church honoring twin doctors so committed to free healthcare that a talking camel had to intervene in their burial dispute.
From the Community
Tallinn, Estonia
Restoran Olde Hansa
This Tallinn restaurant bans potatoes, tomatoes, and chocolate—only ingredients available before 1492 make the cut.
From the Community
Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
Queen’s Arcade
Before the arcade, the site belonged to Belfast's harp-playing doctor who taught blind children music and founded a hospital.
From the Community
Uayma, Mexico
Santo Domingo de Guzmán Church
Built from stones of dismantled Maya temples, this church took priests over 100 years to convince locals to enter.
From the Community
Savannah, Georgia, United States
Lucas Theatre for the Arts
Savannah's Lucas Theatre reunited with its Wurlitzer organ after a 50-year separation.
From the Community
Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica, Chile
Torres del Paine National Park
British ranchers shipped prefab buildings to Patagonia's edge, where puma hunters were once paid per kill until 1980.
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London, United Kingdom
Royal College of Music
The future King Edward VII opened a music college in 1883 where talent mattered more than birthright.
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Weymouth, Massachusetts, United States
Jefferson School
After designing 140 churches, architect Shepard S. Woodcock finally built something you could skip on Sundays.
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Stockholm, Sweden
Stockholm Palace
Stockholm's Royal Guards rotate in from across Sweden for week-long shifts, and once doubled as the city's firefighters.
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London, United Kingdom
Chelsea Embankment
How a river too putrid for Queen Victoria became one of London's most pristine waterfronts.
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Oamaru, New Zealand
Oamaru Opera House
The architect designed it in 1907, then sailed to Australia in 1911 and never returned to see it age.
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Tabriz, Iran
Sound & Music Museum
Forty years of collecting led to Iran's first sound museum, where fruit-core instruments share space with oil-powered radios.
From the Community
Ljubljana, Slovenia
Slovenian School Museum
Slovenia's oldest specialist museum once lived in a bar and a castle before finding its permanent home in 1938.
From the Community
Tabriz, Iran
Imam Khomeini Mosalla
Tabriz's forever-unfinished prayer hall has been accused of undermining its ancient neighbor.
From the Community
Belgrade, Serbia
Zeleni Venac Market
Belgrade built Zeleni Venac in 1926 to banish illegal ox-wagon vendors and accidentally created the "Queen of the markets."
From the Community
Nancy, France
Grand Nancy Métropole Meurthe-et-Moselle
Built in 1908 by refugees from German-annexed Alsace, Nancy's Chamber of Commerce married art with industry as cultural resistance.
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Kerry, Ireland
Dan Foley’s Pub
The most-photographed pub in Kerry was run by a member of the Magic Circle- and yes, "it's an illusion."
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Paris, France
Basilique du Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre
Sacré-Cœur's travertine stone self-cleans with every rainstorm, releasing calcite that recoats the basilica white.
From the Community
Creemore, Ontario, Canada
Creemore Springs Brewery
Mauled by a tiger during the Depression, sold a brewery for $25 million at 74.
From the Community
Jaipur, India
Monkey Temple
This temple honors the elephant god but houses hundreds of monkeys who commute to Jaipur daily to steal and pickpocket.
AWA visted here