Online Lecture: The London Gasketeers: The Fight to Save Westminster’s Historic Gas Lamps, by Luke Honey
Luke Honey discusses the fight to save Westminster’s gas lamps, their historic importance and the story of gas lighting in London.
Online Lecture: Alfred Stevens: Master of Design, 1817-1875, by Teresa Sladen
When Alfred Stevens was waiting to hear who would finally be given the commission to design the Wellington Monument he said “They must give it to me. No one else knows anything about ornament”. What he meant by this is the subject of this lecture.
Online Lecture: Innovations in the Art and Craft of Stained Glass in the 19th Century
The quest for materials that would evoke the chromatic and textural qualities of early medieval stained glass inspired the work of manufacturers, artists and architects during the Victorian era. This illustrated lecture examines how the art form evolved alongside new technical developments.
Online Lecture: The Mosaics of Westminster Cathedral, by Peter Howell
This talk will examine the decorative interior of Westminster Cathedral, particularly the mosaics. J F Bentley intended that the interior should be covered in marble revetment and mosaics but he never had any mosaics installed. However, he approved the designs for the Holy Souls Chapel by his friend William Christian Symons.
Online Lecture: Owen Jones and the V&A, by Olivia Horsfall Turner
This talk will examine each of the projects that linked Victorian designer Owen Jones and the early V&A: his famous illustrated publication The Grammar of Ornament (1856), his decorative scheme for the so-called ‘Oriental Court’, and his relatively little-known book Examples of Chinese Ornament (1867).
Online Lecture: ‘Fair and Beautiful to Behold’ – Ecclesiastical Embroideries, by Mary Schoeser
This lecture discusses the neo-Gothic in relation to textiles and wallpapers, which focuses on ecclesiastical embroideries in particular. The title, Fair and Beautiful to Behold is after a quotation from G.E. Street. The lecture spills into the Edwardian period to include a Pankhurst banner and Ann Macbeth frontal, to bring out the double meaning of ‘fair’ (in social/political terms).
Online Lecture: Colour Revolution: Victorian Art, Fashion & Design, by Matthew Winterbottom
Matthew Winterbottom talks about the recent Ashmolean Exhibition Colour Revolution: Victorian Art, Fashion & Design that sought to challenge widely held perceptions that the Victorian age was dark and gloomy.
Autumn Online Lecture Series 2024: Crossing Boundaries-Victorian Art, Design and Architecture-7 talks for 6
The 2024 Autumn Lecture Series discusses how 19th century architects conceived of the decorative and fine arts as part of an architectural whole. Our seven expert speakers will boldly break down disciplinary boundaries in a discussion of the use of colour and texture across the whole range of Victorian design and analyses of the important roles played by mosaic, stained glass, embroidery and three-dimensional wall coverings.
Online Talk: Death and the Victorians – A Dark Fascination
In Death and the Victorians, author Adrian Mackinder explores the dark side of the nineteenth century, when hunger for truth about what lies beyond the grave was matched only by the imagination and invention used to find it.
Online Talk: The Work of Horace Jones, the Architect who Designed Tower Bridge
This talk will explore the life and work of Sir Horace Jones (1819-1887), chief architect to the City of London who designed many of its most famous buildings including Tower Bridge, Smithfield, Leadenhall and Billingsgate markets, and the Temple Bar memorial.
The Architecture of ‘Greater Britain’: Style and Empire, c.1885-1915
This lecture will consider the role architecture played in responding to perceived notions of British decline in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Building Better Britain: Victorian Architecture in New Zealand, 1840 – 1901
The nineteenth-century colonisation of New Zealand was seen as an opportunity to establish a new society on the far side of the world that would perpetuate British culture while avoiding the poverty, overcrowding and industrial pollution that afflicted contemporary Britain.
Eclecticism and Ornament in Malaya’s Vernacular Classicism
This lecture explores how the eclectic ornamental classicism of Victorian and Edwardian Britain came to influence Malaya’s own syncretic brand of classical architecture, resulting in a unique regional style.
Life on the Buffalo River – the Development of East London, South Africa
The river port town of East London, on the eastern seaboard of South Africa, was born in conflict in 1848, and after a long period of penury, finally commenced with more substantial development in the 1870s. The talk will provide an overview of the history and development of the town and present some of the Victorian era architecture and structures.
Enviable Reputation: An Indian Engineer and the Construction of Victorian Bombay
This lecture will examine the role of one prominent Indian architect and engineer of the Victorian era, Khan Bahadur Muncherji Cowasji Murzban (1839-1917) concentrating on his official career to examine his meteoric rise and his role in the construction of Victorian Bombay.