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: 7
Marble in the Making: From Quarry to Building in Victorian Ireland
Wednesday 9th December 2026, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm
This talk will discuss the use of native marble in buildings in Victorian Ireland, from the development of its quarries and expansion of the industry to the skilled makers who transformed stone into architectural decoration. Drawing on her forthcoming book, Louise Caulfield explores its lithologies, extraction and fabrication, alongside the people, places and buildings that shaped Ireland’s remarkable marble heritage.
A geologist with a special interest in the interplay between geology and architecture, Dr Louise Caulfield is Research Fellow of the STONEBUILT Ireland project at Trinity College Dublin. Her publications include chapters in The Museum Building of Trinity College Dublin: A Model of Victorian Craftsmanship (2019) and Enriching Architecture: Craft and its Conservation in Anglo-Irish Building Production, 1660–1760 (2023). Her book Marble in the Making: From Quarry to Building in Victorian Ireland will be published by UCL Press in January.
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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