Events - Live and Online
The Victorian Society is an CPD provider recognised by the The Institute of Historic Building Conservation.
Victorian Society events are publicised to members below and in the 'Blue Sheet' with our mailings in February, June and October.
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.
Missed a talk? Discover our recorded online talks here.
We're always looking for volunteers to put on events with us. Please contact us if you are interested in getting involved at [email protected].
Future Events
George Edmund Street Bicentenary 2024
This year is the bicentenary of the birth of the great Victorian architect, G E Street (1824-1881). His designs for the Royal Courts of Justice and many hundred churches and parochial buildings across the United Kingdom, as well as in France, Italy, Switzerland and Turkey, characterised the nineteenth-century gothic revival. To celebrate his birth, we are working with St James the Less Church, Pimlico, to run a programme of events.
To learn more, click here.
Victorian Society AGM 2024 Bradford
The Victorian Society AGM 2024 will be in Bradford, West Yorkshire, on Friday 4 October, followed by a weekend of architectural tours in Bradford and the surrounding area. The weekend activities cost £260 and can be booked here.
Forthcoming Events
APRIL
Manchester Regional Group Event
Walk: Manchester’s Theatre District
Date: Tue 16 Apr
Time: 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
David Astbury will lead a repeat walk on the Theatres of Oxford Street and Peter Street, passing through what was once the heart of Manchester’s historic theatre district.
Tickets: £10
Bookings: [email protected]
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South Yorkshire Regional Group
Talk: The Larger Country Houses of Sir Ernest George, by Hilary Grainger
Date: Tue 16 Apr
Time: 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Venue: The Showroom Cinema, Paternoster Row, Sheffield City Centre, Sheffield S1 2BX
Sir Ernest George (1839 – 1922), was one of the leading architects of the English Domestic Revival. This lecture examines George’s larger country houses. Professor Hilary Grainger is an architectural historian and the chair of the Victorian Society. She is the leading authority on Sir Ernest George.
Tickets: £5
Booking: [email protected]
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Visit: All Saints, Boyn Hill, Maidenhead
Date: Sat 20 Apr
Time: 2:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Meeting place: Maidenhead Station for 2:00 pm
G E Street’s first visit to Italy, undertaken in 1853, changed the direction of his architecture: it also led to his vastly influential book of 1855, Brick and Marble in the Middle Ages: Notes of a Tour in the North of Italy.
The first major expression of this new architecture was at the church of All Saints at Boyn Hill in Maidenhead, Berkshire.Completed in 1857, with its various attendant buildings and the steeple soon after, it presented a colony of buildings accommodating the needs of an ecclesiastical community.
The Ecclesiologist, the arbiter of taste in High Church circles, declared, ‘We have seldom been more pleased with a design than the one before us.’
This visit, led by the church warden, will provide the opportunity to visit, in addition to the church, the former school (now the church hall) and to climb the tower. The schoolmaster’s house, the clergy house and the almshouse can be viewed from the outside. We will also be able to see the grave which Street designed for his first wife, Mariquita, a Maidenhead girl who died in 1874. The church’s architect will be in attendance.
Tickets: £20
Book now
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Online Talk: The ‘Fine’ Garden Making of Sir Reginald Blomfield (1856-1942), by Sara Tenneson
Date: Wed 24 Apr
Time: 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Sir Reginald Blomfield is best known for his architecture, not just country houses but significant buildings such as the Quadrant at Piccadilly Circus, Lady Margaret Hall in Oxford and the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres. What is little known is his garden making. This talk by Dr Sara Tenneson will discuss a selection of his gardens from Godinton in Kent to Mellerstain in the Scottish Borders.
Following a career in marketing, interim management and consultancy, Dr Sara Tenneson found gardens. This interest led her to study plants and planting design, setting up her own business and going on to study garden history. This led to an MA in Garden History and in November 2022 she was awarded a PhD from the University of London. She continues to research, study, talk and write about the gardens of the Victorian and Edwardian period. Please note that this talk will not be recorded.
Tickets: £6
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Walk: Victoria Embankment, led by Alec Forshaw
Date: Thu 25 Apr
Time: 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm
Meeting place: Temple Underground Station, Victoria Embankment, London WC2R 2PH
Victoria Embankment was completed in 1870, and provided a new riverside boulevard and a string of public ornamental gardens, overlooked by some magnificent late 19th and early 20th century buildings.
Alec Forshaw, architectural historian and author, will lead a walk to look at a wide selection of the Embankment’s works of commemoration.
Tickets: £18
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West Yorkshire Regional Group
Walk: Oldham, led by Steve Roman
Date: Sat 27 Apr
Time: 11:00 am – 4:00 pm
This is a chance to explore Victorian Oldham, viewing the Oldham Town Hall (1841, J. Butterworth; extended 1879-80, G. Woodhouse and E. Potts), Oldham Parish Church (1823-27, R. Lane), George Street Chapel (1816) and Oldham Lyceum. Steve Roman is a Trustee of the Victorian Society.
Tickets: £8
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MAY
Online Talk: Edwin Rickards, by Timothy Brittain-Catlin
Date: Wed 1 May
Time: 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Edwin Rickards, in partnership with H.V. Lanchester, designed four of the most astonishing and flamboyant public buildings of late Victorian and Edwardian England. His work has been described as ‘the champagne’ of architecture, perpetually fizzing – like its designer – with an almost ecstatic joy and incorporating some of the finest examples of the New Sculpture. Although Rickards said little about his work in his short lifetime, the impression he made on his contemporaries and on his closest friend, the prolific writer Arnold Bennett, was indelible.
This talk describes his career, the partnership’s town hall designs for Cardiff and Deptford, the little known Hull School of Art and by contrast their Methodist Central Hall in Westminster, which has one of the finest staircases in England. Rickards’ influences were mostly French and Viennese, but the synthesis between them was entirely his and never subsequently repeated by any other architect. It is illustrated by Rickard’s own drawings and by a set of new photographs by Robin Forster taken especially for the latest Victorian Society monograph.
Timothy Brittain-Catlin is an architect and architectural historian who has been teaching for many years. After more than a decade working in Britain and abroad on both historic buildings and masterplanning, he returned to Cambridge in 2000 to research the buildings of A.W.N. Pugin and the domestic architecture of early Victorian England. His book The English Parsonage in the Early Nineteenth Century was published in 2008 and since then he has published widely on houses and churches, as well as critiques in the Architectural Review, Architecture Today and many other magazines and journals.
Tickets: £6
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Walk: Lutyens Walk from Trafalgar Square to St Paul’s Cathedral led by Paul Waite
Date: Thu 2 May
Time: 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm
Meeting place: St Martins-in-the-Field, Trafalgar Square, WC2N 4JJ
Join us as we take a walk from Trafalgar Square to St Paul’s Cathedral looking at the little-known City of London works by Edwin Lutyens. The walk is led by Paul Waite, a trustee and chair of the Events Committee of the Lutyens Society.
Tickets: £18
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Wales Regional Group Event
Online Talk: Brunel in Wales, by Steve Jones
Date: Tue 7 May
Time: 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
This talk will illustrate why Brunel came to Wales; it was a landscape that challenged Brunel to develop innovative engineering solutions. Beginning with his first visit to South Wales relating to chain for the Clifton suspension bridge. This would lead on to his first railway commission in south Wales; the Taff Vale Railway (TVR). The TVR was a unique Brunel railway, his only standard gauge line in Great Britain and one that still runs today on its main route over his historic structures, including the iconic Goitre Coed viaduct. Brunel returned to build the South Wales Railway, at the time, the longest railway authorised to date by Parliament. In the course of completing these railways many works in iron, masonry and timber would be developed and there were also dock works, connections with his great ships and more. Engineering history, particularly the work of Brunel, has long been an interest of the speaker and he published the final volume of the Brunel in South Wales trilogy in 2009.
Stephen K. Jones is the Wales Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers Panel for Historical Engineering Works and Chief Executive of the South Wales Institute of Engineers Educational Trust. His professional background was in industrial development and economic regeneration, latterly at the Welsh Development Agency (WDA). Exhibitions include Web of Iron and chapters in Samuel Brown and Union Chain Bridge (2017), The Engineering Revolution: How the modern world has been transformed by technology (2019) and Spanning the Centuries (2020).
Tickets: £6
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Victorian Short Story Reading Group: ‘The Pipe of Mystery’ by G.A. Henty
Date: Wed 8 May
Time: 7.00 – 8.30 pm
Venue: Priory Gardens, London W4 1TT
Colonial Short Stories: India.
An old soldier tells his grandchildren about an episode which took place
during his service in India. This story involves the Great Indian Mutiny of
1857 but is told at a jovial gathering from the perspective of an adventure,
with no mention of the politics or problems which led to the troubles.
At each session there is a brief introduction to the work, followed by a group discussion in a relaxed atmosphere, with wine and nibbles supplied.
Tickets: £6
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Visit: New Museum of London Site at Smithfield
Date: Thu 9 May
Time: 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm
This is a rare chance to look around the new home of the Museum of London, the historic market buildings in Smithfield, which were saved from demolition by the Victorian Society in 2014. We will learn about the plans for the reuse of the site and see the current progress of this redevelopment. This is a working building site. Members Only
Tickets: £25
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South Yorkshire Regional Group
Walk: Victorian Chesterfield led by Philip Riden
Date: Sun 12 May
Time: 2:30 pm- 4:30 pm
Discover Victorian Chesterfield with Philip Riden who is an honorary research fellow and retired member of the academic staff at Nottingham University.
Tickets: £5
Booking: [email protected]
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Visit: Guards Chapel, Wellington Barracks, London
Date: Wed 15 May
Time: 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Meeting Point: Outside the Guards Chapel, Birdcage Walk, SW1E 6HQ
Imagine a Sunday morning in June eighty years ago. Soldiers and civilians have gathered in the Guards Chapel for the morning service and the choir has just begun the Sung Eucharist. Then a V1 flying bomb, a doodle-bug, crashes into the roof and explodes, killing 121 soldiers and civilians and seriously injuring 141 others. Yet the silver cross on the altar is untouched and the candles continue to burn.
Despite the destruction, the apse, built by G E Street in 1877-79, is still standing and part of the building is reopened for services by Christmas 1944. Bruce George’s airy, modern rebuilding of 1963, using as its focal point Street’s apse, incorporates stained glass by Clayton and Bell, mosaics by Salviati, metalwork by Leaver and carving by Earp, is as much a memorial to those who died as a showcase of what survived.
This is a rare opportunity to see the building in the company of an expert in church iconography, the Revd. Lis Goddard, who is the vicar of St James the Less, Pimlico.
Tickets: £15
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Walk: Street to Street: a South-of-the-River Walk, led by Alison Rae
Date: Sat 18 May
Time: 2:00 pm – 5:15 pm
Meeting place: St Paul’s Church, Herne Hill, SE24 9LY
Join us for this exploration of the landscape of G E Street’s mid 19th century boyhood, framed by his churches St Paul’s, Herne Hill and St John The Divine, Kennington.
Tickets: £20
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Visit: Maison Dieu (Dover Town Hall), Dover
Date: Wed 22 May
Time: 1:50 pm – 4:00 pm
Meeting place: Ladywell car park entrance, Dover, CT16 1DG
A unique opportunity to see conservation work in progress on a hard hat tour of this hidden gem. In use for over 800 years, the Victorian elements of Maison Dieu include impressive stained glass, wall paintings and grand spaces added by William Burges and Ambrose and Edward Poynter. This is a working building site. Members should be able to walk unaided over a large site.
Tickets: £25
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JUNE
Visit: West Norwood Cemetery
Date: Sat 1 Jun
Time: 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Meeting place: By the archway just inside the main gate of West Norwood Cemetery, West Norwood, SE27 9JU
West Norwood Cemetery was opened in 1837 and designed by Sir William Tite. This was the second of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries. West Norwood is the resting place of many self-made Victorian industrialists, inventors, scholars and manufacturers, including Mrs Beeton, Sir Henry Doulton, Charles Spurgeon and Sir Henry Tate. Dr Jane Jordan will be leading this tour. She is an author and academic.
Tickets: £20
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Birmingham Regional Group Event
Visit: Stourbridge
Date: Thu 6 Jun
Time: 9:00 am - 4:00 pm
This walking tour of Stourbridge will be led by Andy Foster and David Low and will highlight some of the town’s significant Victorian buildings. We hope to include the closed church of St John the Evangelist (G.E. Street, Grade II, 1861) and the Stourbridge Glass Museum.
Tickets: £30.
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Visit: An Exploration of Surrey led by Charles O’Brien
Date: Sat 8 Jun
Time: 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Meeting Place: Main entrance of Guildford Station at 9:45 am
Charles O’Brien, Series Editor of the Pevsner Architectural Guides and reviser of the Surrey volume (2022) will lead a visit to the southwest of the county. The tour will start in Guildford looking at the work of Henry Woodyer, H. Thackeray Turner and Richard Norman Shaw and in the afternoon progress to Wonersh to see an early church restoration by Charles Nicholson and other buildings including Barnett Hill by Arnold Mitchell.
Tickets: email [email protected] to register interest.
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Victorian Short Story Reading Group: ‘The White Tiger’ and ‘Caulfield’s Crime’ by Alice Perrin
Date: Wed 12 Jun
Time: 7.00 – 8.30 pm
Venue: Priory Gardens, London W4 1TT
Colonial Short Stories: India.
These two stories present the different attitudes of some ethnic Indians and some Western colonisers towards hunting and the value of human life. (N.B. there are 2 stories this month. Both are very short).
At each session there is a brief introduction to the work, followed by a group discussion in a relaxed atmosphere, with wine and nibbles supplied.
Ticket Price: £6
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South Yorkshire Regional Group
Visit: St John’s Church, Ranmoor, led by Mary Grover
Date: Sat 15 Jun
Time: 2:30 pm- 4:30 pm
A talk by Mary Grover about the History of the first St John’s Church in Ranmoor followed by a guided tour.
Tickets:£5
Booking: [email protected]
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West Yorkshire Regional Group
Visit: Ilkley, From Village Spa to Victorian Resort, led by Alex Cockshott
Date: Sat 15 Jun
Time: 3:00 pm-5:00 pm.
Ilkley started as a village with fresh air and pure cold water. With the arrival of the railway station in 1865, the village expanded. The visit includes the Ilkley Charity hospital, All Saints’ Church, extended 1860, and the old Castle (The Manor House). Alex Cockshott is Vice Chair of Ilkley Civic Society and author of Ilkley, Past and Present.
Tickets: £5
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G E Street Symposium and Gala Dinner
Date: Thu 20 - Sat 22 Jun
This three-day celebration of the life of G E Street starts with a Gala Dinner on 20 June, and continues with two days of talks and walks. Based at St James the Less, Pimlico, the Symposium will comprise three papers presented in the morning session, and walking visits to buildings by Street in the afternoon.
Book Now***
JULY
Visit: Golders Green Crematorium, led by Hilary Grainger
Date: Sat 6 Jul
Time: 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Meeting place: Golders Green Crematorium, Hoop Lane, London, NW11 7NL
A unique opportunity to visit Golders Green crematorium described as ‘London’s first crematorium and England’s first purpose-designed crematorium landscape,’ (Grade II listed) designed by Sir Ernest George in 1902. Professor Hilary J Grainger, Chair of the Victorian Society. She is the leading authority on Sir Ernest George and the architecture of UK crematoria.
Tickets: £20
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Visit: Hampton Court in the 19th Century
Date: Wed 10 Jul
Time: 11:00 am - 1:00 pm
Meeting Place: At the main entrance to the Palace itself.
Hampton Court Palace is renowned as the finest surviving Tudor palace in the world. The history of the Palace in the Victorian era is often overlooked, but is equally as fascinating. Members of the Victorian Society are invited to join the Curators of Historic Royal Palaces for an exclusive visit to Hampton Court Palace. The visit will include a talk by Brett Dolman, Curator of Works of Art, on the Palace as a Victorian art museum, and Curator of Historic Buildings, Karey Draper, will lead a tour including access to areas that are not open to general visitors. Following the event, members will be free to explore the rest of the Palace – including the famous formal gardens – at their leisure.
TIckets: £35 (Over 65s £30.00)
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Victorian Short Story Reading Group: ‘The Pestilence at Noonday’ by Cornelia Sorabji
Date: Wed 24 Jul
Time: 7:00 pm– 8:30 pm
Venue: Priory Gardens, London W4 1TT
Colonial Short Stories: India. This writer, herself an Indian, sought to better the lives of her fellow countrywomen. This story, from a collection called Love and Life behind the Purdah, illustrates the lowly status of a woman in relation to her husband and also touches on how the British have added another layer of complexity to this. At each session there is a brief introduction to the work, followed by a group discussion in a relaxed atmosphere, with wine and nibbles supplied.
Tickets: £6
Book Now
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Discover our recorded online talks here.
Events
Disclaimer, cancellation and accessibility
Please read our disclaimer, which contains information on event cancellations and accessibility.