More than just street furniture
Benches aren’t just street furniture—they’re stories. Every British bench tells you something: about the people who placed it there, the community it serves, the landscape it sits in and often the lives it quietly commemorates. Whether it’s a memorial bench on the coast, an ornate seat in a city park, or a battered wooden bench in the woods all benches have a story if you don't know it make up your own story.
Hidden
Take time to enjoy the unusual: funny inscriptions, unique designs, hidden benches or neglected ones. Notice what you’ve walked past a hundred times—bench plaques, the view from the seat, the role benches play in British social life.
This photograph shows the place where we gathered before a dear friend’s funeral, standing together in quiet grief before following the coffin in convoy. What was once an ordinary, unnoticed bench became a sacred place of remembrance, forever marked by loss, love, and shared sorrow.
Oddities and charm
Uncover the human stories behind benches.
Benches aren’t just places to sit—they’re windows into human stories. Some will make you smile, some sad, and others make you wonder: Who put that there?
Take a moment. Sit. Look around. Every bench has a story waiting to be discovered.
This is a bench on an island in the road outside a pub called Uncle Tom’s Cabin in Cookham, Maidenhead. There’s something quietly thought-provoking about it—a lone bench on a small patch of grass between two roads.
It’s not in a park, it’s not by the river, and it’s not tucked away in a garden. It’s simply there, waiting. For anyone who stops
Inspiration for visits
I am most excited to review and share benches with stories, a scenic spot, a place that is good for talking with friends or maybe strangers, relaxing and smoking a good cigar.
Hopefully somewhere you visit again and again.
Battersea park with Tony and Tom
Tom is a New Yorker we met at this bench he has a penchant for cigars, nature and watching the world go by, always ready to chat with people as they pass—a nicer guy you could not meet.
He has become a real friend to both of us, met through a bench