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...

£5 members/£7 non-members

Tom Balch, Director of Rose of Jericho, will deliver a talk on Traditional Paints. The talk will encompass the manufacture and use of limewashes, distempers, sheltercoats and linseed/lead oil paints. In the main these recipes are authentic to their Georgian counterparts. Discussion will include their make up, ingredients, function, performance and suitability along with issues commonly caused by the specification and application of inappropriate paint finishes to traditionally constructed buildings.

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

This event has been rescheduled to 29th January 2025

£25, 11am

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 note this visit has been rescheduled from Wednesday 13th November

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

£5 members/£7 non-members

Harriet Wennberg will explore the fascinating history of Verdmont, a fine eighteenth-century house in Bermuda. Built for the privateer John Dickinson, it is a rare example of the transitional type, retaining some features of an earlier seventeenth century house while also anticipating the classicism of the eighteenth century. The house remains largely unchanged since it was built c.1710.

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

£5 members/£7 non-members

The influence of craftsmen on the design of country houses and on urban development c.1720–1820: a case study of a market town and its surrounding country houses. Between c.1720 and 1770, a considerable number of country houses were modernised, either by rebuilding the entire property or making major changes. Craftsmen clearly played a significant role in the styling of new work as well as in its construction. A selection of houses will be used to illustrate this. The work seemed to dry up and so in the 1780s – 1820 enterprising craftsmen became important players in the layout, design and development of housing in what was a building boom fuelled partly by wealth generated from providing services for soldiers involved in the Napoleonic Wars, in some cases laying out new suburbs, the quality of the houses depending on the craftsmen’s perception of the market. In some market town’s, much stands today. A memorial to their entrepreneurial endeavours.

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

Landscape prints promoted appreciation of British scenery – and vice versa – as horizons, both geographical and artistic, expanded in the late Georgian period. How did new printing techniques help to foster the cult of the Picturesque during this golden age of watercolour painting? Jasper Jennings is an expert in the visual print culture of the Romantic age.

£50 (exc. lunch)

Winner of the Diaphoros prize at the 2022 Georgian Group Architectural Awards the Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings was constructed in 1797 as a spinning mill, producing linen thread from flax. Its construction was revolutionary, being not only the first iron-framed building in the world, but also the first fireproof building and the first fully prefabricated sectional building that was bolted together. Historic England rescued the site, and a five-year programme of repair and regeneration works to the Main Mill was completed in 2022. Members will be taken on a behind the scenes tour of the spaces and learn about the regeneration project.

In the afternoon, we will be led on a walking tour of Shrewsbury’s rich history, led by a local guide.

The event is for members only. Please read our terms and conditions before booking. 

£15 members/£18 non-members

Using unpublished French and English sources, Philip Mansel shows that the Francophilia of the Prince Regent equalled the Anglophilia of Louis XVIII. The Regent decorated his palaces like French palaces, promised Louis XVIII not to make peace until he had restored the Bourbons to their throne, and organised a triumphant reception for Louis XVIII in London in 1814. Louis XVIII knew English history and literature ‘perfectly’, called the interests of the two countries ‘inseparable’, followed Castlereigh’s secret advice about his manifesto to France in 1813, and welcomed British visitors to Paris after 1814 (such as Soane, Nash and Walter Scott). Throughout the nineteenth century Paris attracted thousands of British residents, while, long before Palmerston used the term ‘entente cordiale’ in 1831, the two countries acted as political and military allies in Europe.

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

This talk will focus on the fragile survival of this still largely intact East India Company town and its Georgian architecture. St Helena was a hugely important staging point for trade ships to and from the east prior to the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Peregrine will have recently returned from a second visit to the island working with others on a Conservation Management Plan for the town which will help to inform his talk.

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

At a time of increased pressure for new urban development, where there is a focus on either object-based architecture or the rolling out of developer-designed suburban sprawl, there is a concern that the lessons learned about the creation of a general attractive ‘townscape’ or ‘streetscape’ have become forgotten or obscured. Ptolemy Dean will discuss his new book ‘Streetscapes: Navigating Historic English Towns’.

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

£35

Spring will have sprung by the end of March, so come and spend a sunny morning exploring the history and architecture of the streets and gems around Aldwych and the Strand.

The area of Aldwych was an Anglo-Saxon settlement known as Ludenwic and is now home to Somerset House and the Edwardian town planning of Kingsway.  The Strand was the site of the medieval Savoy Palace, while numerous grand houses belonging to the aristocracy and the Church graced the banks of the River Thames.  Canaletto and Monet painted the scene, Benjamin Franklin frequented its coffee houses and the Victorians embanked its waterways.

On this spring saunter, we will explore disused tube stations, “Roman” baths, Royal Peculiars and toy shops.  We will discuss the lyrics to Oranges and Lemons, and venture to the grandeur of the Adelphi Buildings via Australia, Croatia and Kaspar the Cat, and we won’t forget Eleanor of Castille and John of Gaunt.

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

Clear window glass of the long 18th and 19th centuries is a remarkable product of its age. Within current conservation practice and planning, recent research shows that it is understood and valued less well than other building materials. This talk/lecture will examine elements that contribute to its significance.

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, morning

This visit to Stoneleigh Abbey will begin our series of events to coincide with Jane Austen 250 celebrations in 2025. Stoneleigh Abbey was founded by the Cistercians in 1154. One of the seats of the Leigh family, Stoneleigh Abbey has played house to several people of note, including King Charles I, Queen Victoria, and novelist Jane Austen. 

Between 1714 and 1726 a new palatial four-storey fifteen-bay west wing was built to designs by architect Francis Smith of Warwick and provides an impressive range of state apartments. 

After many tragic events, including a fire in 1960, the house was left in a run-down state that could no longer be looked after by the Leigh family so was sold to a preservation charitable trust. This failed, but the Abbey was then saved by a new independent charitable trust.  

 The event is for members only. Please read our terms and conditions before booking. 

£80/£40 (student ticket)

Following successful Georgian Group symposia on Architecture and Design in 2024 and Wren in 2023, our 2025 Symposium will be on the topic of Architecture and Literature 1660- 1840. This Symposium will join the 2025 programme of events marking the 250th anniversary of the birth of Jane Austen.

The Symposium will be held on Saturday 12^th April 2025 at Goodenough College, Mecklenburgh Square.

In the face of proposals for its partial redevelopment, in 1938 the Georgian Group campaigned for the preservation of the square, staging a successful fundraising Ball and Fair in the gardens. The Group’s aim was to ensure ‘that as many people as possible may see Mecklenburgh Square as it is now: one of the last perfect examples of Georgian architecture in London’. The Square is perhaps best known as the home of some of the most celebrated writers of the early 20^th Century, including Virginia Woolf who lived at no. 37.  Sadly, the square was damaged by enemy bombs in 1940.

A full programme for the day will be announced in due course.

Public tickets include refreshments and buffet lunch  A limited number of student tickets are available here.

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

As a postgraduate student, Charles Saumarez Smith spent a lot of time working on John Vanbrugh in connection with his designs for Castle Howard. He developed a different view of his relationship to Nicholas Hawksmoor from the current orthodoxy, partly from reading his correspondence with Henry Joynes, the Clerk of Works at Blenheim. It was the opposite of what you might expect: here were the letters of an architect who was hard working, conscientious, deeply involved in all aspects of Blenheim’s construction. He has have now written a biography, John Vanbrugh: The Drama of Architecture, to be published in advance of the tercentenary of his death in 2026. This talk will discuss a new interpretation.

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

Gothic architecture never quite went away in England. It reached its nadir, in general esteem and new buildings built, c. 1680– 1720, and thereafter recovered as a new generation discovered the style. From that point, ‘Gothic Survival’ architecture, built by masons, was paralleled by early ‘Gothic Revival’ buildings, designed by architects including William Kent, James Gibbs, Sanderson Miller and Henry Keene. Steven Brindle considers the various strands of Gothic architecture and decoration, its relationship to antiquarianism, how the style was used, and its various meanings in Early Georgian England.

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

£5 members/£7 non-members

From a derelict shell to a vibrant tea house: discover the award-winning conservation work that rescued the Camellia House at Wentworth Woodhouse from Historic England’s Building at Risk Register. Architects Donald Insall Associates will discuss how the team transformed the Grade II*-listed building and touch on their wider work at Wentworth Woodhouse.

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

£5 members/£7 non-members

In this lecture, based on his PhD research and work supported by the Dunscombe Colt Fellowship, Matthew Lloyd Roberts will explore the various ways in which ideas about architecture and the built environment were disseminated in print and periodical culture at unprecedented scale in Georgian England. In a wideranging discussion from the gendering of architectural connoisseurship to the public relations campaigns of the New Churches Commission to disputes over quality of brickmakers’ products, this lecture will shed new light on the discursive world of architectural production enabled through new paradigms of searchability within the Digital Humanities.

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, morning

Winner of the 2023 Georgian Group Architectural Award for the Restoration of a Georgian Garden of Landscape, Bromesberrow Place was built in 1768 but remodelled by George Basevi in 1810 for the economist David Ricardo in the severe Greek revival style. Basevi, Disraeli’s first cousin and a pupil of Sir John Soane, was only 25 at the time. He was later known his work on Belgrave Square, Pelham Crescent, London and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. 

The park at Bromesberrow was extended by Hal Moggridge in 1993 to cover 200 acres with some 80,000 trees planted in the shelter belts. Thirty years on and the structure of the restored parkland can be appreciated once again.  

Visitors will have an introductory talk “The English Country house – Grandeur and Decline” followed by a tour of the ground floor, main staircase and one bedroom. This is followed by the garden tour which includes the vineyard in the walled garden and the 19th-century camelia house. The garden covers five acres. 

 The event is for members only. Please read our terms and conditions before booking. 

Friday 6th June 2025, 11 – 4:  £50

George Carter and Caroline Knight have arranged a visit to Great Yarmouth, a town which was hugely prosperous in the 18thC and has many Georgian listed buildings. Most of these are within the well-preserved medieval walls and are therefore concentrated in a fairly small area. The day is to be based at St George’s church (1714) now a community theatre, where there will be an introductory talk by former mayor Barry Coleman, followed by a talk about the work of the Great Yarmouth Preservation Trust by Darren Barker, who runs it. We will walk round King Street and South Quay to see the grand merchant’s houses. The main streets are linked by narrow lanes, ‘The Rows’ with very small houses where the workers lived. We will have lunch at the theatre in its modern café, designed by Hopkins Architects as part of the restoration scheme of the church. We will also visit the Royal Naval Hospital (1809) converted by Kit Martin in 1996 into terrace housing and apartments, and the Britannia Monument (1817) by William Wilkins, which has been recently restored. This was built to commemorate Admiral Horatio Nelson, its inscription records ‘This great man Norfolk boasts her own.’ The attractive Fishermen’s Almshouses (1702) built to house ‘decayed fishermen’ is still occupied as almshouses and will also be seen.

Many of Yarmouth’s listed buildings are at risk but a small group of dedicated, mainly local conservationists are developing restoration strategies and finding new uses for problematic buildings, and in the process training local young people in the specialist conservation building skills that are needed.

 The event is for members only. Please read our terms and conditions before booking.