Events
The Victorian Society organises a wide variety of events. They are publicised first to members in the 'Blue Sheet' with our mailings in February, June and October. Some require booking, others you can just turn up on the day. When they are oversubscribed, a ballot is held, and members get first preference.
For events organised by our regional groups, please see the regional group pages.
Walk: Dalston Churches
Saturday 31 July:
2pm to about 5pm. An afternoon walk led by Fabian Watkinson focussing on four churches.
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Walk: Kilburn and West Hampstead
Tuesday 3 August:
6.15pm to about 8pm. An evening walk led by Michael Hall.
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Supper Lecture: Commemorating Albert: the Architectural Monuments
Tuesday 10 August:
6.45pm for 7pm. By Gavin Stamp, editor of Sir George Gilbert Scott’s Personal and Professional Recollections (1995) and contributor to Chris Brooks’ (ed), The Albert Memorial (2000).
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Long Weekend in Lancashire
Thursday 12 August:
2pm Thursday to about 3.30pm Sunday. A repeat of the very popular Central Lancashire weekend which sold out in 2008.
Sold out
Sculpture walk of the City of London
Wednesday 18 August:
6.30pm to about 8pm. Led by Philip Ward-Jackson, author of Public Sculpture in the City of London.
Turn up or book and save
Croydon and beyond
Saturday 21 August:
9.50am to about 5pm. A church crawl led by Gavin Stamp visiting six churches in and around Croydon.
Turn up or book and save
Westminster Cathedral and the Consecration Centenary Exhibition
Tuesday 24 August:
2pm to about 4pm. The Cathedral celebrates the centenary of its consecration with a fascinating exhibition on its history. Led by Peter Howell, this is an opportunity to look at the exhibition and explore JF Bentley’s masterpiece with its lavish and sumptuous fittings.
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Visit to Leighton House
Wednesday 25 August:
6.30pm to 8.30pm. A summer evening visit to see the exciting refurbishment of the house which returns much of it to Lord Leighton’s original decorative scheme.
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Mystery, music and maths in South Norwood
Saturday 11 September:
1.30pm to 4.30pm. Tony Woolfenden leads a walk to explore the surprisingly-varied Victorian development of this south London suburb.
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St Paul’s Cathedral in the Nineteenth Century
Tuesday 14 September:
6pm to 8pm. An exclusive tour of this building led by Martin Stancliffe, Surveyor to the Fabric of the Cathedral since 1990.
Sold out
Two Great Estates: A tour around Chester
Wednesday 29 September:
2pm Wednesday to about 5pm Friday. Led by Dr Colin Cunningham, this 3-day tour explores the architectural heritage of the estates of the Duke of Westminster at Eaton and Lord Egerton of Tatton Park.
Sold out
Lecture: Lost Victorian London
Wednesday 6 October:
6.30pm to 8pm. By Gavin Stamp, author of the bestselling Britain’s Lost Cities (2007), who has just completed a book on vanished Victorian Britain, to be published next year.
Sold out
Lecture: Paddington
Monday 11 October:
6.30pm to 8pm. By Graham King, Head of Strategic Planning & Transportation for the City of Westminster.
Turn up or book
Supper Lecture: Gothic in India
Wednesday 13 October:
6.45pm for 7pm. By Colin Cunningham. Under the great Sir Bartle Frere, Bombay was turned into ‘the first city in India’. Splendid Gothic architecture replaced colonial Classicism, culminating in the amazing Gothic Victoria railway terminus.
Sold out
Lecture: Marshalling Tributes: The Statuary of Waterloo Place
Tuesday 19 October:
6.30pm to 8pm. By Philip Ward-Jackson, one of the best-known experts on nineteenth-century sculpture.
Turn up or book
Lecture: London’s Victorian Bridges
Wednesday 27 October:
6.30pm to 8pm. By Peter Matthews, author of London’s Bridges (2008).
Turn up or book
Visit to Garrick Club
Tuesday 2 November:
10am to 12 noon. A tour of the Garrick Club which was founded in 1831 and moved to its present premises in 1864; it houses the largest and most significant collection of British theatrical works of art with over 1000 paintings, drawings and pieces of sculpture on display.
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Lecture: London’s Squares in the Victorian Age
Wednesday 3 November:
6.30pm to 8pm. By Todd Longstaffe-Gowan, a landscape designer, who has recently completed a book on the history of London squares, to be published by Yale University Press next year.
Turn up or book
Symposium: Ecclesiology and Empire
Saturday 6 November:
10am to 5.30pm. Organised by Alex Bremner of the University of Edinburgh. This symposium brings together several of the world’s leading experts on the rise of ecclesiology in the former British Empire (and beyond).
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An 1890s House in Clapham
Wednesday 10 November:
6.30pm to 8.30pm. A repeat for those who missed out last time.
Sold out
Lecture: Victorian Battersea
Thursday 11 November:
6.30pm to 8pm. By Colin Thom, a member of the Survey of London project team.
Turn up or book
Supper Lecture: Frank Baines
Wednesday 17 November:
6.45pm for 7pm. By Chris Pond.
Sold out
Lecture: Clubland
Monday 22 November:
6.30pm to 8pm. By Tim Jones of English Heritage.
Turn up or book
