The Georgian period gave us many of Britain’s most beautiful buildings – in cities, towns and villages. Yet much of our Georgian inheritance remains in danger...

£70 members, All day

Members will make private visits to two significant Georgian houses, both owing their prosperity to the cloth industry pioneered by their early owners. We start at Corsham Court (Grade I), originally a medieval house owned by the Crown.  Despite its Elizabethan appearance, little remains of the major rebuilding in 1582 by Thomas Smythe, collector of customs in London. After several ownership changes, Corsham was acquired in 1747 by Paul Methuen (died 1792), whose descendants still live there.  They remodelled it over the next century in many styles – Palladian (Ireson and Brown), Gothic (Nash) and neo-Elizabethan (Bellamy, whose tower of 1846 dominates the N front) – successive architects replacing their predecessors’ changes.  Brown, then Repton, landscaped the park. We will see the renowned old masters first collected by Sir Paul Methuen (died 1757) and extended by 2nd Lord Methuen (died 1891).

Seend Manor House (Grade II*), was owned by the Awdry family 1695-c1924.  Ambrose Awdry built what became the manor house c 1695, mainly on the site of the lower 2-storey N front range of the present house.  His grandson Ambrose rebuilt and extended this in ashlar to the S from 1767 (rainwater heads).  This handsome taller 5-bay, 2-storey elevation, with a parapet and dormers in a mansard roof, has a dramatic long view towards Salisbury Plain.  The W end intriguingly features 11 blind windows and ornamental detail on the chimneystack.  The N elevation was remodelled c 1800, rendered with ashlar dressings and a tripartite window above the Ionic porch.  Most of the interior is original and has been atmospherically conserved by the present owners, Stephen and Amanda Clark, the designer, who have created a remarkable and exotic walled garden.

Andrew Wells leads.

Please read our Terms and Conditions before booking. members’ to make their own transport arrangements. 

If tickets have sold out for this event, please email members@georgiangroup.org.uk to be added to the waiting list.

Join the Young Georgians for a summer picnic after work in Kensington Gardens. The exact pin will be added to the Young Georgians WhatsApp group (please email yg@georgiangroup.org.uk to be added to the group)

This should be a lovely social event especially as the The Young Victorians will also be joining us. We hope to see you there.

A free event, all Young Members and particularly potential new members are warmly welcome. Please bring your own food and drink.

£40/ £25 NT members (exc. lunch), all day

Join us for a visit to 17^th Century Fenton House, ‘a hidden gen in London, a place of unique charm and ambience’.  The tour will be led by the National Trust curator for the property who will point out the curiosities of the collection and members will have the opportunity to visit the beautiful gardens.

After lunch, join architectural historian and Editor of the London Topographical Society newsletter, India Wright, on this new tour of one of London’s most-loved villages. You will explore Hampstead’s historic streets, learning about the evolution of its early eighteenth-century spa resort and the burgeoning hilltop town which developed out of its popularity as a destination for health and diversion.

Members to make their own arrangements for transport.  This visit is for Georgian Group members only. For any members who are also National Trust members, please enter the code NTMEMBER at the checkout. 

If tickets have sold out for this event, please email members@georgiangroup.org.uk to be added to the waiting list.

Image: ©National Trust Images/Arnhel de Serra

£15

A final visit to the home of the late Ann Broadbent. A loyal member of the Georgian Group for over half a century, who hosted the group to her treasure filled home in Greenwich on several occasions. Ann’s house in the heart of Georgian Greenwich was decorated in her unique eclectic style with antiques and junk shop finds.

Join us for drinks in the garden and an ‘open house’ for one last time before the contents are sold at Wimbledon Auctions in August.

This event is open to Georgian Group Members only.

Please read our Terms and Conditions before booking.

If tickets have sold out for this event, please email members@georgiangroup.org.uk to be added to the waiting list.

£50

Join us for a visit to the historic Georgian city of Bath, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to the works of Wood (the most successful town planner of eighteenth-century England), Eveleigh and Adam, amongst countless others. The day will start with a walking tour of the city, led by Dr Amy Frost, senior curator for the Bath Preservation Trust, who will point out the highlights and history of Bath’s famous sweeping crescents, the Circus, Assembly Rooms and other famed Georgian-period buildings.

The day will also include a visit to The Bath Preservation Trust’s museums, including No. 1 Royal Crescent, the Museum of Bath Architecture and Beckford’s Tower, which has recently undergone a £3.9 million refurbishment, reopening to the public in June 2024.

Tickets are £50 and include the walking tour and entrance to the museums. Lunch is not included in the ticket price. 11am start time.

This event is open to Young Georgian Members only

Please read our Terms and Conditions before booking.

If tickets have sold out for this event, please email members@georgiangroup.org.uk to be added to the waiting list.

£25, Morning

By kind permission of the Sunley family, members of the Georgian Group are invited to visit Godmersham Park.

The present Godmersham Park house was built in 1732 in Palladian style for Thomas Brodnax whose family had lived at Godmersham since the mid-16^th century. The architect is unknown but Christopher Hussey appraised it in Country Life in 1945 thus:

“the quality…implies a London man of status of Flitcroft or Roger Morris – scholarly Palladians yet acquainted with the English tradition…Godmersham’s charm consists to a great extent in its having been conceived on a relatively modest scale of a country gentleman’s house but executed…with the fastidiousness of the greatest houses of the period – the age of Holkham, Houghton and Wentworth Woodhouse.”

 The house is best known today as the home of Jane Austen’s brother, Edward Knight, who moved in in 1797 having acquired the house through this cousin, Thomas Brodnax May Knight (son of the aforementioned Thomas). On your tour you will be guided around House, Gardens, Heritage Centre and St Lawrence the Martyr Church by trustee and conservation architect Rebecca Lilley, who wrote her 2022 Masters Dissertation on Godmersham Park.

The house is not usually available for public viewing and has been opened especially for the group.

Members to make their own arrangements for transport. This visit is for members’ only. 

Please read our Terms and Conditions before booking.

If tickets have sold out for this event, please email members@georgiangroup.org.uk to be added to the waiting list.

Image: Rebecca Lilley

East Anglian Regional Group

Lectures: Neo-Georgian Architecture in the 20th Century

Lecturers: Dr Patrick Goode, FSA & George Carter, FSA

Thursday 15^th August, 2 – 5.30 pm at Silverstone Farm & All Saints, Bawdeswell

Dr Patrick Goode is a member of the Twentieth Century Society and was co-editor, with Sir Colin St. John Wilson, of The Oxford Companion to Architecture, OUP, 2010.

NEO-GEORGIAN ARCHITECTURE IN THE 20thC

Dr Patrick Goode

&

NEO-GEORGIAN BUILDINGS IN NORFOLK

George Carter

To be followed by a visit to All Saints, Bawdeswell to see the church by James Fletcher Watson, built in 1953

The talks will take place at Silverstone Farm, North Elmham, NR20 5EX, by kind permission of George Carter.

This event is for members and non-members.

If tickets have sold out for this event, please email members@georgiangroup.org.uk to be added to the waiting list.

Image: Bishop’s Palace, Norwich

£30

Join us for a packed day of architectural and artistic treasures. We will begin the day with a tour of a stunning private house in the Cathedral close dating from 1720 and once the home of Rex Whistler. We will then learn more of Whistler through the exhibition ‘Rex Whistler: The Artist and His Patrons’ at the nearby Salisbury Museum which will be introduced to us by a curator.

Lunch at the museum will follow and YGs will have the opportunity to explore the museum’s permanent collection in their own time. In the afternoon, we will explore other architectural delights in the Cathedral close, including the cathedral if time allows, and the rarely open 1790s Robert Taylor Guildhall.

Please meet on Chorister’s Square at 10:30am sharp. (Please note, the square is a 15 minute walk from the station). Lunch is reserved but not included in the ticket price.

Run by: Frederick Hervey-Bathurst. This event is open to Young Georgian Members only

Please read our Terms and Conditions before booking.

If tickets have sold out for this event, please email members@georgiangroup.org.uk to be added to the waiting list.

£5 members/£7 non-members

Mrs Coade is best known for her fired artificial stone, supplied from her manufactory in Lambeth and ubiquitous in Georgian England and far beyond.

This talk will consider wider aspects of her life in London: the places she lived and also her activity in speculative development, both as financier and developer herself. Locating Coade in this wider context provides an interesting case study in the architectural activities of Georgian women, as well as in how a never-married woman like Coade successfully navigated the world of business, challenging our perceptions of female agency in the period.

The talk starts at 6.30pm, doors open from 6.15pm.

Georgian Group members are eligible for a discount on their ticket by entering GGMEMBER at the checkout.

Please read our Terms and Conditions before booking.

If tickets have sold out for this event, please email members@georgiangroup.org.uk to be added to the waiting list

£40 (exc. lunch), all day

The Grade I listed Piece Hall, Halifax is the only remaining Georgian cloth hall in the world, the sole survivor of the great eighteenth century northern cloth halls, a class of buildings which embodied the vital and dominant importance of the trade in hand woven textiles to the pre-industrial economy of the West Riding of Yorkshire, from the Middle Ages through to the early nineteenth century. The tour will be led by LDN architects, who led an extensive regeneration project completed in 2017.

Just a mile from Halifax centre, Grade II* Shibden Hall dates to 1420. Home of renowned diarist Anne Lister (1791-1840), significant changes to the architecture of Shibden Hall were made whilst she lived there. She employed the architect John Harper of York to make improvements, including the addition of a Norman-style tower c1836 for her library with modern water closets. The main hall was also re-opened to the height of the building and a gallery, new ‘Jacobethan’ panelling and a fireplace were all installed, making the space more imposing.

Members to make their own arrangements for transport.  This visit is for Georgian Group members only. 

If tickets have sold out for this event, please email members@georgiangroup.org.uk to be added to the waiting list.

£20 members/£25 non-members

Curt DiCamillo is a noted author and internationally recognised authority on the British country house. The Massachusetts-based Mr. DiCamillo regularly leads luxury scholarly tours and lectures around the world on art and architecture. At this ‘in conversation’ with Julian Honer (Director, Thames & Hudson) , Curt will join us to discuss his latest book, A British Country House Alphabet, which documents famous historical events and cultural innovations that occurred at, or because of, British country houses.

Julian Honer is Editorial Director at Thames & Hudson, where he heads the publisher’s partnerships with museums, including the British Museum, the V&A and M+ museum in Hong Kong. He also commissions books about historic and contemporary architecture.

The discussion will be followed by a reception to celebrate the launch of the book.

The talk starts at 6.30pm, doors open from 6.15pm.

Georgian Group members are eligible for a discount on their ticket by entering GGMEMBER at the checkout.

Please read our Terms and Conditions before booking.

If tickets have sold out for this event, please email members@georgiangroup.org.uk to be added to the waiting list

£15 members/£18 non-members

Sarah Siddons grew up always poor and often hungry. But before she was 30 she had become a superstar. Her rise was not easy. Her London debut, aged just 20, was a disaster. But the young actress – already a mother of two – rebuilt her career, returning triumphantly to the capital seven years later. Her shows were sell-outs. In a world of vicious satire and gossip, Sarah battled to protect her reputation. She took constant pains to portray herself as a wife and mother, but this hid some darker truths. This remarkable woman also redefined the world of theatre and became the first celebrity actress.

The talk starts at 6.30pm, doors open from 6.15pm.

Georgian Group members are eligible for a discount on their ticket by entering GGMEMBER at the checkout.

Please read our Terms and Conditions before booking.

If tickets have sold out for this event, please email members@georgiangroup.org.uk to be added to the waiting list

£15 members/£18 non-members

Sir John Soane’s architecture has enjoyed a revival of interest over the last seventy years, yet Soane as a collector – the strategy behind and motivation for Soane’s bequest to the nation – has remained largely unexplored. While Soane referred to the display of objects in his house and museum as ‘studies for my own mind’, he never explained what he meant by this, and the ambiguity surrounding his motivation remains perennially fascinating. Bruce Boucher will examine key strands in Soane’s collection and what they reveal about the man and the psychology of collecting.

The talk starts at 6.30pm, doors open from 6.15pm.

Georgian Group members are eligible for a discount on their ticket by entering GGMEMBER at the checkout.

Please read our Terms and Conditions before booking.

If tickets have sold out for this event, please email members@georgiangroup.org.uk to be added to the waiting list

£25, Afternoon

Tabley House, described as the finest Palladian mansion In Cheshire was built by John Carr of York for Sir Peter Byrne Leicester in 1767. The Leicester family lived at Tabley from the 14^th Century, first in the Old Hall on a moated island, and then later in the fine Georgian house that still stands today.

This visit is for members’ only. 

Please read our Terms and Conditions before booking.

If tickets have sold out for this event, please email members@georgiangroup.org.uk to be added to the waiting list.

£5 members/£7 non-members

Thomas Read Kemp of Kemp Town in Brighton is a great example of an entrepreneurial developer of the 1820s who overstretched himself, although contrary to a long-established myth, Kemp was not bankrupted. Most were. Although none of Kemp’s projects were completed, they had a significant impact on Brighton’s landscape in the 1820s and evidence for most of them survives. There must be other ambitious people whose aspirations ran ahead of their ability to complete projects but helped to shape townscapes of the later eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries like Kemp

The talk starts at 6.30pm, doors open from 6.15pm.

Georgian Group members are eligible for a discount on their ticket by entering GGMEMBER at the checkout.

Please read our Terms and Conditions before booking.

If tickets have sold out for this event, please email members@georgiangroup.org.uk to be added to the waiting list

£25, Afternoon

Orleans House Gallery stands in the grounds of the original Orleans House, a site comprising approximately six acres with natural woodland and parkland used for recreational activities. The house took its name from Louise Phillipe Duc d’Orleans (1773-1850), later King of the French, who lived there from 1815 until 1817 during his exile from France. The property was originally built in 1710 for James Johnston, Joint Secretary of State for Scotland under William III by John James. The baroque Octagon Room, Grade I listed, was constructed around 1720 and designed by James Gibbs. It features fine gilded decorative plasterwork by distinguished stuccatori (plasterers), Giuseppe Artari and Giovanni Bagutti. The HLF funded ‘Transforming Orleans House’ project completed was completed in 2018. The tour will be led by Ayaka Takaka of Donald Insall Architects.

This visit is for members’ only. 

Please read our Terms and Conditions before booking.

If tickets have sold out for this event, please email members@georgiangroup.org.uk to be added to the waiting list.

Image: Morley Von Sternberg

£5 members/£7 non-members

The 1.2 million modern annual visitors to London Zoo today, regardless of extensive modernisation, visit a zoological garden laid out within original boundaries of the early 19th century, amidst the harmonious surrounds of Regent’s Park. The footprint of Decimus Burton’s designs, despite the demolition of many of his buildings, shaped the character of both London Zoo and zoological gardens throughout the world. Oliver Flory will focus on the topography and the design of the early gardens up to the year 1837 and the construction of Burton’s giraffe house, perhaps the most famous zoo building in the world.

The talk starts at 6.30pm, doors open from 6.15pm.

Georgian Group members are eligible for a discount on their ticket by entering GGMEMBER at the checkout.

Please read our Terms and Conditions before booking.

If tickets have sold out for this event, please email members@georgiangroup.org.uk to be added to the waiting list

£30, Afternoon

As the ancestral home of the 9th Marquess & Marchioness of Hertford, Ragley Hall was designed for Lord Conway by Roger or William Hurlbut circa 1677 and modified by Robert Hooke in 1678. The east or entrance facade is dominated by a full-height portico supported on Ionic columns which was added by James Wyatt in 1778. The park landscaped by Capability Brown in 1757, with late 19^th Century formal gardens laid out by Robert Marnock.

This visit is for members’ only. 

Please read our Terms and Conditions before booking.

If tickets have sold out for this event, please email members@georgiangroup.org.uk to be added to the waiting list.

Image: Wiki Commons: CC BY-SA 4.0

£35

Come and spend an autumn morning exploring the history and architecture of the streets and gems of Clerkenwell.

Clerkenwell was one of London’s first suburbs when it became a fashionable quarter for wealthy inhabitants escaping the City in the 17^th century, before it later became known for its over-crowded slums and radical activities.  In recent decades, it has become a heartland for the creative industries, in disused craft workshops, warehouses and markets, and the area will become the new home for the Museum of London.

On this autumn amble, we will explore revolutionaries (Wat Tyler, Stalin and Lenin), monasteries (Carthusian), residences (Hercule Poirot), prisons (the Clerkenwell House of Detention), burial sites (Crossrail excavations of Black Death victims) and one of the City’s most hidden Churches, St Bartholomew-the-Less and its links with William Hogarth.

The Walk will be led by Meg Ryder, a Londoner who hails from Pimlico.  Meg is a qualified solicitor who left the law to establish bespoke walking tours in London to follow her passion for all things historical, artistic and architectural. Meg has a Masters in History from Edinburgh University, and studied History of Art and Architectural History in Rome.

We will meet at 10.45am for a 11am start. This event is for members only.

If tickets have sold out for this event, please email members@georgiangroup.org.uk to be added to the waiting list.

£5 members/£7 non-members

The Nelson Garden was created in the late 18th century as a town garden in the centre of Monmouth, a place that went on to create a prosperous Georgian character in the first part of the 19th century. The walled garden acquired its name sometime after the visit by Nelson in 1802 and, today, the seat in which Nelson sat is preserved within a neo-classical pavilion. The garden also retains a rare surviving example of an 18th century hot wall.
This talk will look at the significance of the garden, the associations with Nelson and the ambitious restoration project completed by the Nelson Garden Preservation Trust.

The talk starts at 6.30pm, doors open from 6.15pm.

Georgian Group members are eligible for a discount on their ticket by entering GGMEMBER at the checkout.

Please read our Terms and Conditions before booking.

If tickets have sold out for this event, please email members@georgiangroup.org.uk to be added to the waiting list

£15 members/£18 non-members

We tend to think of cemeteries as Victorian, but their origins lie much earlier. There are two key phases: first, urban growth around 1700 demanded new burial provision and a pioneering wave of Anglican burial grounds started to join the cemeteries of dissenters and Jews. Later, influenced by Père Lachaise, new cemeteries were opened by private enterprise from the 1820s. The Georgian churchyard tradition supplied many of the tomb types, ensuring a strong element of continuity. The resulting funeral landscapes like Kensal Green (opened 1833) represent some of the key achievements of William IV’s reign. This talk is based on a forthcoming book on British cemeteries, co-written with Brent Elliott, to be published by Liverpool University Press.

The talk starts at 6.30pm, doors open from 6.15pm.

Georgian Group members are eligible for a discount on their ticket by entering GGMEMBER at the checkout.

Please read our Terms and Conditions before booking.

If tickets have sold out for this event, please email members@georgiangroup.org.uk to be added to the waiting list