Only one building in London is allowed to have a thatched roof — the Globe Theatre, where Shakespeare acted and plays like Hamlet were first performed.

But this isn't the original Globe Theatre; that burned down 400 years ago.

This one is less than 30 years old... In the 1590s William Shakespeare was part-owner of an acting company called The Lord Chamberlain's Men.

He wrote their plays and even took part in performances.

They were based in a playhouse in north London, simply called The Theatre.

A brief introduction to the architecture of universities:

Starting with Kyung Hee University in South Korea... The great scholar Erasmus once said that the main hope of every society lies in the education of its youth.

What he said 500 years ago remains true.

But it's not only about what you teach; it's also about where you teach.

Exactly 200 years ago today one of history's most influential and controversial writers died.

He kept a pet bear at university, (allegedly) had an affair with his half-sister, fought for Greek Independence — and also wrote some poetry.

This is the story of Lord Byron... Byron dominated 19th century European culture.

Artists including Hayez, Delacroix, and Turner painted scenes from his poems, and composers including Beethoven, Verdi, and Tchaikovsky set his work to music.

A cultural icon who has shaped literature for two centuries.

"Hanami" is underway in Japan — the season when people gather to watch cherry blossom trees, or sakura, in bloom.

It is an ancient tradition that has since become globally popular, with similar gatherings all around the world.

But hanami isn't just about pretty flowers... The place to begin is with an old story about the King of Persia. He supposedly gathered the wisest men in the land and asked them if there was any sentence which would always be true, whenever it was spoken.

They found an answer — this too shall pass.

As Abraham Lincoln said:

A brief history of the colour orange: First: the word itself.

A strange word, one of few that famously cannot be rhymed.

It comes to modern English from Middle English, itself from Old French, via a host of other languages, originating in Sanskrit and before that Dravidian, as a name for the fruit.

150 years ago today, at precisely 8pm, the world of art changed forever.

What happened? A small, independent art exhibition opened in Paris.

It was a financial failure and barely 3,000 people went — but, in time, these artists would come to be known as "the Impressionists"... 15th April. 1874. Paris.

On the top floor of the studio of a photographer called Nadar, at No. 35 on the Boulevard des Capucines, about 170 works of art have been gathered for an exhibition.

It is hosted by the "Société anonyme des artistes peintres, sculpteurs, graveurs, etc."

It sounds oddly specific, but 19th century drain pipes were quite something... You probably wouldn't notice these if you walked past them — we are accustomed to ignore drain pipes, of course — but, stop for a minute, and you'll find peculiar monsters staring back at you.

Perhaps not pretty, but certainly interesting.

Art is not always what it seems.

Many of the world's most famous paintings have been "restored" over the years — carefully returned to what we think they originally looked like.

But some of these restorations have been incredibly controversial... It is easy to forget — given how many perfectly pristine photographs we see of them — that paintings are real, physical objects.

And so, like everything else in the world, they are vulnerable to deterioration, dirt, damage, and aging.

This painting is over 100 years old.

It was made by a Swedish illustrator called John Bauer, one of the most important artists you've never heard of.

His revolutionary art influenced everything from graphic novels to animated films to video games, and here's why... John Bauer had a short but wonderfully creative life that ended in tragedy.

He died in 1918, at the age of just 36, along with his wife and son in a shipwreck on Lake Vättern.

But, in the time he was given, Bauer gave plenty back to the world.

This is the Cloaca Maxima in Rome, a sewer built 2,000 years ago.

But it isn't unique — there are other subterranean wonders just like it.

So from the hidden cities of Turkey to the inverted temples of India, here is a brief dive into the world of underground architecture... Since the dawn of human civilisation — and even before it — we have been going underground.

The oldest art in the world is found in caves, from France to Indonesia, some of them hundreds of metres from the surface.

Bison or handprints daubed in the darkness.

23 incredibly specific things you've probably noticed that also have incredibly specific names:

1. Spoliation — when parts of an older building are reused to make a new one. 2. Craquelure

The cracks that appear on the surface of paintings over time.

Different kinds of paints and pigments produce highly specific craquelures, and so it is a vital tool in dating and authenticating works of art.

There's more to the world of art than Leonardo da Vinci and Pablo Picasso.

So here are 11 brilliant, beautiful, & bizarre painters you've (probably) never heard of: 1. Hans Baluschek (1870-1935)

Baluschek was fascinated by industrialisation: the rise of factories, chimney stacks, machinery, and trains, along with the lives of the people in these rapidly growing, smog-filled metroplises.

As in City of Workers, from 1920:

Why are cities dominated by highways and cars?

It's partly because of one of the most influential people you've never heard of: Norman Bel Geddes.

In 1939 he created "Futurama", a huge exhibition that tried to predict the future — and ended up changing the world... Norman Bel Geddes designed everything from radios to theatre sets.

And in 1936 he approached Shell Oil with the idea of an advertising campaign about "the City of Tomorrow".

They liked his proposal and so he created models for them — a world dominated by cars and highways:

We listen to about 20 hours of music per week on average, not including adverts.

But what if you couldn't listen to your favourite songs whenever and wherever you wanted?

Here's a brief history of how the way we listen to music has changed — including where we listen to it... In the past how did people listen to music? You had to be in a specific place, at a specific time.

What sorts of places? In a church, concert hall, parade ground, or even a tavern.

Otherwise you, or your family and friends, would have to sing and play music yourselves.

The Sagrada Família in Barcelona, started 142 years ago and still not quite finished, is one of the world's most beloved buildings.

And that makes sense, because it's totally unique, right? Not exactly.

This is the story of how you create an iconic building... The Basilica di Sagrada Família, meaning the Basilica of the Holy Family, is Antoni Gaudí's masterpiece.

He took over as chief architect in 1883, one year after construction had started, and totally transformed the project.

141 years later it is still incomplete.

The best way to understand different styles and movements in art is to look at how different artists have painted the same thing over time... The oldest known portrayal of the Crucifixion is some Roman graffiti from about the year 200 AD — and it's a mockery of Christianity.

It's called the Alexamenos Graffito and depicts Jesus with the head of a donkey.

The words say: "Alexamenos worships his God."

The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci is 526 years old, and it's had a rough history.

Monks used to eat breakfast next to it, Napoleon's soldiers turned the room into a stable, and it was bombed during WWII.

And somebody once added a new door that destroyed the feet of Jesus... The Last Supper is one of the world's most instantly recognisable works of art, legendary on its own merits and just as famous for how often it's been parodied or referenced in popular culture.

If you're interested in the Middle Ages, here are 16 paintings you'll absolutely love... 1. The Accolade by Edmund Leighton (1901)

Edmund Leighton was a master painter of the Middle Ages who loved to tell thoroughly romanticised miniature stories based on some important element of Medieval life.

In this case the moment of knighthood.

This is Swaminarayan Akshardham, a colossal Hindu temple in Delhi built with marble and limestone and covered in thousands of sculptures.

But this is not an ancient temple — it is less than twenty years old.

And it might change the future of architecture... The idea for Swaminarayan Akshardham goes back to 1968, but it wasn't until 2000 that construction finally started.

It was built by a Hindu denomination called Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, or BAPS.

The temple was completed in 2005.

These strange creatures were painted nearly 500 years ago by a man called Pieter Bruegel.

And, if you can believe it, he is one of the most important artists in history.

Here's why... Pieter Bruegel was born in the Netherlands in about 1525, possibly in a town called Bruegel — hence his name — or in Breda, but soon moved to Antwerp.

We know little of his origins, though people have speculated for centuries that he was from a peasant family... you'll see why.

Setting is a big part of any film, but how do you get the right place?

You can use CGI, build a set — or find the perfect location.

So from Star Wars to The Grand Budapest Hotel, here are some real places you might recognise from fictional worlds... Those peculiar beehive-shaped huts from Star Wars Episode VIII are real.

They are on Skellig Michael, an inhospitable island off the coast of Ireland where a group of monks established a monastery in the Dark Ages.

These buildings are 1,000 years old.