Online Autumn Lecture Series 2026
New Bearings in Victorian Architecture
Our autumn lecture series celebrates the publication of the most ambitious overview of Victorian architecture in a generation.
In his new volume for the Oxford History of Art, Victorian Architecture, G.A. Bremner, Professor of Architectural History at the University of Edinburgh, has broken with the tradition of surveys based on building typologies or style. Instead, he has approached this protean subject in a series of thematic chapters that highlight the way architecture is key to understanding Victorian debates about such issues as technology, urbanism, modernity, government, empire, faith, domesticity and consumerism. A fundamental aspect of his analysis is its consistent emphasis on the global nature of Victorian architecture and its place in the greater Britain forged by the country’s colonial expansion.
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Online Autumn Lecture: 5
Imperial Logistics: Victorian Architecture and Infrastructure
Wednesday 25th November 2026, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm
During the nineteenth century, the British empire depended upon the movement of people, commodities, and information across increasingly large distances. This lecture explores the role that architecture played in organising these flows. Moving from Britain to sites across the world, we will examine buildings and infrastructure including docks, warehouses, railway stations, telegraph offices, and government buildings. Rather than treating architecture simply as a representation of empire, the lecture considers how buildings formed part of the material systems through which imperial and commercial expansion operated.
Matthew Wells is Senior Lecturer in Architectural Studies at the University of Manchester and Belcher Visiting Fellow in Victorian Studies at St Hugh’s College, Oxford
Each lecture is recorded and sent out within a week after the talk. This recording can be accessed at any time.
The Victorian Society is an IHBC recognised CPD provider.
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