AS CHIEF

curator of Historic Royal Palaces, TV’s Lucy Worsley is at home in listed buildings. When not at work, though, the Oxfordeducated historian lives in a distinctly unhistoric building in Southwark, South London.

‘It’s not what you’d expect,’ admits Lucy, who lives with her architect husband, Mark Hines.

‘It is quite plain, simple and modern. It’s low maintenance. I have an office in Hampton Court Palace so I get my fix of old stuff while at work. I don’t want the responsibilities of a leaking roof and the conservation work that goes with an old property.’

Worsley, 43, has no children and once said she’d been ‘educated out of the natural reproductive function’, adding: ‘I get to spend my time doing things I enjoy. It seems to fascinate people.’