Events - Live and Online

With your ticket you'll be emailed a recording to watch at a time which suits you.

The Victorian Society is an IHBC recognised CPD provider.

We're always looking for volunteers to put on events for us. Please contact us for more information.

Next events:

Andrew Saint: London 1870-1914: a City at its Zenith- Part 1 - Wed, Sep 22, 2021 7:00 PM

In the first lecture of the 3 part series, Andrew Saint will discuss London in the 1870s. Though the 1870s was a decade of social stability in London, it also witnessed the stirrings of a fresh individualism and secularism, and the emergence of Art for Art’s Sake, and the Queen Anne style in architecture. ‘Queen Anne’ was memorably taken up by the School Board for London, the most radical of several boards that sought to tackle the inadequacies of parish government. The growth of the suburbs will also come into this talk, which will end with a revised reading of Bedford Park.

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Ealing Queen of the Suburbs - bicycle tour led by Elain Harwood on Sunday 26 September 2021 at 1.15pm

Join us for a meander through the streets of Ealing to the Brentham Garden Estate (1901-15), which predated Hampstead Garden Suburb, looking at a wide variety of C19 & C20 villas, churches and municipal buildings, including: the Town Hall, New Broadway (1888), by the local board surveyor, Charles Jones; the Fire Station, Uxbridge Road (1932-33), by Evan Morgan; St Benedict, Ealing Abbey (1895-97 and 1905), by Frederick & Edward Walters; St Peter, Mount Park Road (1889-93), by John Dando Sedding & Henry Wilson; and St Barnabas, Pitshanger Lane (1914-16), by E C Shearman & Ernest A Tyler. Attendees need to bring or hire their own bikes and be confident road users.

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Study Day: French Architecture and the English, 1835-1914 - Sat, Oct 2, 2021 10:00 AM

French influences on nineteenth-century English architecture and decoration were so pervasive that it seems astonishing that the topic has never been concertedly examined. This study day has a number of aims: to review the various Victorian buildings built in England to the designs of French architects and explain why Frenchmen were chosen; to trace the fluctuating reputation of French architecture and design in England during the Victorian and Edwardian years; to discuss what drew Gothic Revival architects in England to French Gothic exemplars; and to examine the permeation of Beaux-Arts influences into English architecture in the Edwardian period.

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Andrew Saint: London 1870-1914: a City at its Zenith- Part 2 - Wed, Oct 6, 2021 7:00 PM

The second lecture in this series on Late Victorian and Edwardian London's development covers the 1880's and 1890's in the British capital.

The series is timed to coincide with the publication by Lund Humphries of Andrew Saint’s new book London 1870–1914: A City at its Zenith. Like the book, the talks will run chronologically, covering the development of the British capital at a time when, in the speaker’s view, it reached its highest position on the world stage.

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Andrew Saint: London 1870-1914: a City at its Zenith- Part 3 - Wed, Oct 13, 2021 7:00 PM

The third lecture in this series on Late Victorian and Edwardian London's development covers the Edwardian period in the British Capital.

The series is timed to coincide with the publication by Lund Humphries of Andrew Saint’s new book London 1870–1914: A City at its Zenith. Like the book, the talks will run chronologically, covering the development of the British capital at a time when, in the speaker’s view, it reached its highest position on the world stage.

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Grandeur and Greatness at Kensal Green Cemetery- walking tour- Sat, Oct 23, 2021 2:00 PM

A walking tour of the most fashionable Victorian burial ground-Kensal Green Cemetery.

Kensal Green was the first of the seven great metropolitan cemeteries, laid out around in the 1800s by private companies. Consecrated in 1833, it was a response to reformist agitation over the state of London's churchyards and privately-run burial grounds. It became Britain's most fashionable Victorian burial ground after a royal interment in 1843 and it is the only public cemetery with royal residents (there are three). Architect John Griffith's wonderful Anglican Chapel is Grade I-listed and his Dissenters' Chapel Grade II* while there are some truly spectacular monuments among the 160 listed structures. Some 1,000 residents feature in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, including the Brunels, Charles Babbage, Trollope, Wilkie Collins and Thackeray as well as Victorian architects, artists, entertainers and others. It is still run by the company that founded it 190 years ago. Led by expert guides from the Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery.

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Decoding architectural decoration in Akroydon and Saltaire- Tue, Oct 26 2021, 7:00 PM

Sheila Binns will explore architectural decoration by delving into the model villages of Saltaire and Akroydon.

Architectural decoration has often been used to convey messages and the later Victorian years have left us some particularly rich examples. Artistic symbolism became highly developed, allowing the expression of ideas independent of literacy. The model villages of Saltaire and Akroydon in West Yorkshire are both full of architectural decoration, which is far more than simply attractive embellishment. It carries messages that were of great importance to their respective patrons. This talk unravels the messages in these communities and provides a new understanding of architectural decoration. It aims to leave the audience to ponder the meaning of the decoration of their own favourite buildings.

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Building the Victorian and Edwardian terraced house online talk series- 2nd Nov- 7th Dec

Our online Autumn talk series will focus on the terraced house, the ordinary but much-loved housing that forms the bedrock of English and Welsh cities. Book your place on all 6 events for the price of 5 here.

We will explore how Victorian and Edwardian terraces came to be. The evolution from the flat fronted Georgian terrace with basement to the classic Victorian and Edwardian bay-windowed house, with front garden, double reception, and side return. Where did that distinctive shape come from? How did urban planning and building regulations develop, how did landowners and builders finance them. We will look at how they were designed, the building trades, materials, design and construction and key drivers such as the development of public transport. We will look at slightly different form of the back-to-back houses characteristic of the working-class districts of the Midlands and the North.

To finish we will consider how the terrace house plan form has been reinterpreted by 20th and 21st century architects and how original Victorian and Edwardian terraced housing can be adapted successfully and sustainably for 21st century living.

The series will look at examples from around the country, including urban and suburban London, the Welsh Streets of Liverpool, back-to-back housing in Leeds, and new projects in Salford and Norwich.

Book your place on all 6 events for the price of 5 here.

Origin and history of the terraced house-Tue, Nov 2, 2021, 7:00PM

Alec Forshaw, historian & urban designer will open the series by tracing the origins & history of the terraced house in Bloomsbury.

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Real Estate development and the small, terraced house- Wed, Nov 10, 2021, 7:00PM

Gareth Carr, architect and lecturer at Wrexham Glyndwr University, will look at development through the Welsh Streets in Liverpool.

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Design and construction of the Victorian and Edwardian terraced house- Tue, Nov 16, 2021, 7:00PM

Architectural historian and Victorian Society trustee, Kit Wedd will explore the materials, design and construction of the terraced house.

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Origin, development and decline of back-to-back housing- Wed, Nov 23, 2021, 7:00PM

Joanne Harrison, architect and heritage consultant, will trace the development of back-to-back house building in Leeds.

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Transport and the development of the Victorian and Edwardian suburbs- Wed, Nov 30, 2021, 7:00PM

Edmund Bird, heritage manager at Transport for London will discuss the development of London's transport infrastructure.

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The terrace house plan in the 20th and 21st centuries- Wed, Dec 7, 2021, 7:00PM

Practicing architect and professor of architecture, Dave King, will cover the reinterpretation and sustainable reuse of the terrace house.

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West Yorkshire Victorian Society events

to book please contact [email protected]

A Walk in Huddersfield on Saturday 16 October at 2pm. David Griffiths will lead a walking tour, starting at St John’s, Birkby (Butterfield 1855) and including Edgerton Cemetery, with its listed monuments, and the early Victorian suburb of Highfields, the subject of his latest
book. £5

Missed a talk? Buy tickets to past talks below:

Victorian Society events are publicised to members below and in the 'Blue Sheet' with our mailings in February, June and October. Some require booking, others you can just turn up on the day.

For events organised by our regional groups, please see the regional group pages:

Birmingham & West Midlands; Leicester; Liverpool; Manchester; West Yorkshire; South Yorkshire and Wales.