Recorded Talks about Victorian Institutions
North and South, Victorian heritage in our Pubs. A Talk by Geoff Brantwood
The focus of this talk is on pubs in the North of England, and it will explore differences between the North and South. Geoff Brantwood will investigate interesting heritage pubs, ranging from small rural inns to great drinking palaces erected in the golden age of pub building over a century ago.
Geoff was an architectural historian and the author and co- author of many books on pubs (as well as churches) and was an active member of the The Victorian Society.
Highgate Cemetery Through Victorian Eyes. A Talk by Ian Dungavell
Many early Victorians found cemeteries rather shocking and modern. Highgate Cemetery was one of the most picturesque, its designers working with the natural advantages of the site to create a theatrical goldmine for its private developers. Using nineteenth-century prints and photographs from archive collections, Ian Dungavell tries to see Highgate Cemetery as the Victorians did.
Ian has been Chief Executive of the Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust since 2012. He was previously Director of the The Victorian Society.
Grand Designs for Health & Wellbeing in the Victorian Hospital. A Talk by Harriet Richardson
This talk will look back at the work that Harriet undertook in the late 1980s and 1990s investigating hospital architecture for the Scottish Research Council and the Royal Commission on the Historic Monuments of England and consider how some of these buildings have fared since then.
Harriet Richardson has worked on the Survey of London. Previously she worked on a survey of Scottish hospitals in 1988-90, and the thematic study of hospitals instigated by RCHME in 1991. Harriet is currently in her second year of a PhD researching the architectural development of hospitals in Scotland after the Second World War.
The Pub Unwrapped and the Golden Age of Pub-Building - A Talk by Geoff Brandwood
Architectural historian Geoff Brandwood takes us on a virtual exploration of our Victorian pubs. From small country pubs and old inns, he will show how the pub as we know it was essentially a Victorian creation with a truly magnificent flowering in the closing years of the nineteenth century.
Geoff has co-authored and edited a number of books on pubs, as well has being heavily involved with the The Victorian Society for many years. He has played a key role in the Campaign for Real Ale’s fight to preserve historic pub interiors.
A look at London’s Victorian Cemeteries. A Talk by Brian Parsons
Brian Parsons, co-author with Hugh Meller of London Cemeteries, an Illustrated Guide and Gazetteer will explore some familiar and lesser known aspects of the capital’s Victorian cemetery heritage copiously illustrated with both archival and contemporary photos.
Dr Brian Parsons has worked in the funeral industry in London since 1982. His other works include: An Illustrated Guide and Gazetteer, London Cemeteries in Old Photographs, Committed to the Cleansing Flame: The Development of Cremation in Nineteenth Century England and The Undertaker at Work: 1900-1950.
The Steam Waterworks,
Architecture in the Service of Public
Health
by James Douet
Steam waterworks are among the most
expressive of Victorian buildings. This talk
will tell the engaging story of a singular
type of building, weaving a narrative
of architectural and social history with
industrial and engineering progress
to show how waterworks pulled 19th
century towns back from the Sanitary
Crisis that menaced civilized urban life.
James Douet is a historic buildings and
exhibitions consultant in Barcelona.
Great British Parks – A Concise History.
by Paul Rabbitts
This talk illustrates their origins, discusses the need for parks, the Victorian heyday, what makes a great park, with examples of lodges, lakes, bandstands, fountains and floral displays, to their great decline in the sixties and seventies.
Paul Rabbitts has worked in the parks sector for over 35 years, as a landscape architect and an award-winning parks manager.
Death and the Victorians: A Dark Fascination
by Adrian Mackinder
Author Adrian Mackinder explores the dark side of the 19th century, when hunger for truth about what lies beyond the grave was matched only by the imagination and invention used to find it. By exploring Victorian technology, culture, ritual and practices, this talk exposes a unique era when the world was inventing new ways to connect the living with the dead that endure to this day.
Adrian Mackinder studied Theology at Bristol University and Victorian Culture at Birkbeck, University of London.
To find links to all of our recordings, please visit here.