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Cabinet of Chic Curiosities
Category / Don’t Be A Tourist

In Defence of Clutter: The American Castle of a Renaissance Hoarder

Forget the great and gaudy Hearst Castle – why don’t they talk about Fonthill Castle? Now that’s a house worth seeing. Some might call him America’s first hoarder, but for any aspiring collector or lover of eclectic arts, Pennsylvania’s most underrated treasure is an astonishing visual treat at every turn, telling the story of a…

Why NASA Set up Shop in Russia’s Forbidden Star City

Tucked in a Russian forest not terribly far from Moscow, you’ll find it: a veritable mini-city, populated entirely by space explorers and their kin for over half-a-century. This is “Star City,” and getting an invite here is a bit like making it into Wonka’s Chocolate Factory; it’s the world’s oldest habitation of its kind, a…

A Bucket List of Star Cities Scattered Across our Globe

Next to pasta primavera, star forts have to be one of the coolest things the Italians ever made. Dreamt up in the 15th century to withstand onslaught of a little something called cannonballs, today these hypnotic fortresses appeal to our contemporary imaginations like crossover creations of fantasy genres – Star Wars, but make it Medieval…

Our Zoom Date with one of the World’s Last Artisanal Globemakers

Got your passport handy? Today, we chat with the founder of London’s Bellerby & Co., one of the world’s last remaining globemakers. Fancy a globe the size of a comet? They can make it. How about one crawling with medieval monsters or detailing the route of the Silk Road? You bet. Co-founder Peter Bellerby kindly…

Faces of the Lenape Tribe, the original Inhabitants of Manhattan

Why did they sell Manhattan for $24 worth of beads and trinkets? That’s one version of the story anyway, about the legendary transaction between the European colonisers and a once powerful indigenous nation. The Dutch called it “New Amsterdam”, and then it became “New York” under the British. But isn’t it about time we all…

There’s an Iconic Art Deco Department Store Frozen in Time inside an LA Law School

It’s a spring afternoon in 1936, as you pull up to the doorstep of 3050 Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. The valet takes your car, the doorman tips his cap, and suddenly you find yourself in the belly of a 230,000-square-foot mecca of West Coast fashion. Known as “Bullocks Wilshire,” this storied California department store was…

Virtually Wander & Weave through an Enchanting Odditorium of Curiosities

It almost feels like you’ve clicked on something you shouldn’t have and suddenly, a door to internet Narnia has opened and you find yourself roaming the aisles of a huge maze of glass cabinets, overflowing with an insane amount of objects. You’ve stumbled into the cabinet of wonder that is the Pitt Rivers Museum. Indefinitely…

Housetrucks: A Traveller’s Answer to Freedom in this Strange New World?

Stay at home. Don’t travel. Social distance. These are the rules we need to abide by in order to get through this surreal pandemic bringing the world to a standstill. But what if your home was on wheels? What if you could safely stay at home while driving through national parks, desert canyons and coastal…

Our Zoom Date with a Paris Catacombs Explorer

In case you missed the carrier pigeon memo last week: we held our first Keyholder Video Event, and kicked it off with a live Q&A with the fabulously entertaining Alexander J.E. Bradley – an artist and urban explorer whose mastery of the Paris catacombs has led us down many a rabbit hole (you may recall…
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