Events

Bonhams Auctioneers Evening Tour (6pm for a 6:30 talk)

A highlights tour of their upcoming auctions which include fine silver, furniture and decorative arts. The team of Bonhams specialists will be keen to pick out lots that date to the Georgian period including fine tapestries, furniture, a rare plaque attributed to Bertel Thorvaldsen, a pair of candle vases by Matthew Boulton and a monumental pair of George IV silver candelabra being sold from the Stationer’s Company.

There is no charge for this event (open to all Young Georgians and prospective) and we shall probably head to a local pub afterwards. Please kindly let Harrison know if you’d like to attend:  yg@georgiangroup.org.uk

This event is kindly sponsored by Bonhams Auctioneers

£15 members/£18 non-members

In 1779 Stroudwater Canal opened, from the River Severn to Stroud town, soon followed by the Thames & Severn Canal which ran from Stroud up the steep escarpment, through the world’s longest navigable tunnel at Sapperton to join the Thames at Lechlade, thence to London or north to the rising Midlands. It was a remarkable achievement, a daring engineering feat. The canal was not just a highway for trade. It connected locals and the nation in a new way. It needed locks, double locks, hump-back bridges (so the trows and barges could pass below), weirs, winding holes, and more. It generated monumental canal-side buildings built of Cotswold limestone – including a total of more than 200 multi-story Cotswold stone mills.

Surprisingly, despite the arrival of the railways from London and the departure of wool production to Yorkshire the canals remained profitable into the 20C. The Thames & Severn Canal closed in 1933, the Stroudwater only in 1954. Just 18 years later, it took one person to call a public meeting in Stroud’s Subscription Rooms on 12 May 1972 to start the revival. Today, Cotswold Canals Trust has 7,000+ members. Fifty years on, the project is well on its way thanks to harnessing a remarkable variety of skills, to private/public/government collaboration, and to an army of volunteers (900 or so at any one time). Louise Nicholson will tell the story of the Cotswold Canals restoration and revival.

The talks 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.

A joint event by Devon Gardens Trust and the Georgian Group

Church Hall, Southernhay United Reform Church, Southernhay East, Exeter, EX1 1QA

The Georgian gentleman’s estate was characteristically embellished by a great diversity of structures all designed to add to the aesthetic appreciation of the landscape. They are one of the pleasures today of visiting historic gardens. These structures were often highly innovative in design, ranging from the obvious adornments such as temples, summerhouses, grottoes, towers, ruins and “follies” – those truly eccentric structures with no obvious function – to buildings with predominantly practical purpose including mausolea, boathouses, dovecotes, stables, kennels, deer pens, barns and cowsheds, all of which could be dressed up to make an architectural impact. Roger White is a leading authority on Georgian landscape architecture whose interest in these buildings was first piqued some fifty years ago and recently culminated in the publication of his book, Georgian Arcadia, Architecture for the Park and Garden which examines the subject from the sublime to the bizarre. In the talk he will explore the diversity and innovation of the buildings, their origins and development as well as their functional and cultural significance.

Roger White is an architectural historian, author and lecturer specialising in the Georgian period. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and has been Secretary to both the Georgian Group and the Garden History Society (precursor to the Gardens Trust.) Copies of Roger’s book will be on sale.

Members of the Georgian Group £10 (plus booking fee) using Promo Code GGMEMBER (Type this in against Promo Code on the booking page then ‘Apply’ to receive this discount). Non members £12 (plus booking fee). Includes refreshments.

The Eventbrite link is https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/georgian-arcadia-architecture-for-park-and-garden-tickets-726333542177?aff=oddtdtcreator

or the Devon Gardens Trust website event details link is https://www.devongardenstrust.org.uk/events/georgian-arcadia-architecture-park-and-garden

£15 members/£18 non-members

George London (d.1714) was probably one of the most important figures in the history of gardens and gardening in reigns of William & Mary and Queen Anne. He ran the famous Brompton Park Nursery from 1681 and he and his business partner Henry Wise designed many great gardens together. However, surprisingly, the foundation of the nursery and the way it was run has not been investigated in great detail and some elements of London’s career, such as his early employment by Henry Compton, Bishop of London, his knowledge of plants and plant collecting and his visits to Holland and France to view plant collections and to bring back plants are rarely discussed.

Dr Sally Jeffery will discuss recent research on London and his career that has revealed many new details.

The talks 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.

Members £18/ non-members £20

Lecture held at Silverstone Farm, NR20 5EX given by Lucinda Chetwode.

This lecture will look at the history of Chatsworth and its development in the 18thC, with the expansion of its art collections and changes to the furnishings and gardens. In the mid-18thC the family also inherited the collections of Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, which brought other estates, paintings and furniture as well as significant architectural drawings.   6pm-8pm. 

Lucinda is Director of the Chatsworth House Trust and a specialist in historic interior decoration and furnishing. 

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

Within the South Downs National Park there is a rich heritage of country houses which were either substantially altered or built in this period. Concentrating on the many in the Sussex section of the Park, we will explore their stories. At the west end we have Uppark and Stansted, at the east end the little known but very interesting Compton Place. Many can either be visited or seen from footpaths.

The talks starts at 6.30pm.

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

Due to the predicted bad weather, this walk has been postponed until 2024

Starting with Domesday, when the Manor consisted of vineyards and pigs, the story moves via Civil War fortifications to the strong intellectual, educational, and medical presence, alongside tales of the Bloomsbury Group.  While discussing one of London’s most notable landlords, the Bedford Estate, we will also discover the oldest square in London, plans for a Nazi HQ in London and a Church linked to a Roman temple in Lebanon.

In terms of individuals there will be plenty to introduce, including Edwin Lutyens, Millicent Fawcett and Elizabeth Garrett Anderson.

Yet there is more to Bloomsbury than meets the eye, so we will also discover telephone exchanges, “Penny Policies”, the preparations for D-Day and coal hole covers.

The Walk will be led by Meg Ryder, a Londoner who hails from Pimlico and now lives in Camberwell.  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.

The walk will begin at 10.30am in the centre of Bloomsbury Square. 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.

£15 members/£18 non-members

George Dance the Elder was Clerk of Works to the Corporation of the City of London from 1735 to his death in 1768 where he oversaw the continued modernisation of the city of London. This position would elevate Dance and his family into the upper echelon of Georgian Society with the family featuring prominently in the arts, architecture and armed forces for four generations.

This lecture will discuss Dance the Elder and his family more broadly, providing a summary of three decades of genealogical research compiled by current members of the family.

The talks 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.

An autumn outing for our young members (and potential young members) to meet and catch up at Osterley Park. There is no up-front cost to attend this trip which will be run on similar lines to the Hampton Court visit: attendees will organise their own travel and pay for their own entry. 

The group will meet at Osterley House at 11am and attendees are invited to bring a picnic to enjoy in the park afterwards.

This event is open to Young Georgians and potential Young Georgians.  

£50, 10.30am-4pm

The day will consist of visits to three sites in the Twickenham area. Sandycombe Lodge (Turner’s House) was built by 1813 to the designs of England’s great landscape painter, J.M.W. Turner; working here as his own architect to create a quiet retreat for himself, away from the pressures of the London art world. Catherine Parry-Wingfield will lead this special tour. Pope’s Grotto Preservation Trust has just completed its restoration of Alexander Pope’s Grotto, the last remaining part of his famous villa and gardens, which he built in 1720 on the banks of the Thames. After lunch, we will visit Marble Hill House, winner of the 2022 Georgian Group Architectural Awards prize for Restoration of a Georgian Garden or Landscape. The house is now open after an extensive restoration project as part of Marble Hill Revived.  

 Lunch is included in this visit. 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.

£15 members/£18 non-members

The invention and evolution of the Georgian landscape garden liberated garden buildings from the corset of formality, allowing them to structure much more extensive areas of garden and park. One of the leading authorities on Georgian landscape architecture, Roger White explores a genre in which some of the era’s greatest architects – Vanbrugh, Hawksmoor, Gibbs, Kent, Adam, Chambers, Wyatt and Soane – experimented with different forms, styles and new technology, in the process producing some of their most interesting and original ideas. Covering not just the obvious adornments of parks and gardens such as temples, summerhouses, grottoes, towers and ‘follies’, he also describes structures with predominantly practical functions including mausolea, boathouses, dovecotes, stables, kennels, deer pens, barns, and cowsheds, all of which could be dressed up to make an architectural impact in the designed landscape.

This talk is taken from Roger’s forthcoming book of the same name (due for publication later this year) which originated in the exhibition that he organised to mark the Golden Jubilee of the Georgian Group in 1987.

This talk has been rescheduled from the autumn of 2022. Please note that this talk takes place on a Wednesday.

The talks 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, 2pm

Grade I listed St George’s Church, Ramsgate built 1824-27 is currently on the Historic England Buildings at Risk register. An ambitious regeneration project, St George Project 200 will begin shortly, with the restoration scheduled to be completed by the 200th anniversary of the church in October 2027. The tour will give members the opportunity to see the church before this work begins.  

This visit is for Georgian Group members only. Refreshments included. 

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

Image: Rob Baker

£15 members/£18 non-members

This talk from Oliver Flory, General Manager of the Georgian Group, will examine the ‘consumption’ of exotic animals over the course of the long 18th century and pose the questions; to what extent were exotic animals treated as consumer goods and how abundant were they in the 18th century? It will focus initially on the trade; the merchants, animal dealers, and itinerant traders, their places of business, and public menageries such as that at Exeter Change. Secondly, it will deal with how animals were ‘consumed’ and treated in the home; as pets, as ornaments to a landscape, as denizens of a menagerie collection, as scientific curiosities, and overall as signifiers of prestige and taste, as well as examining the industries associated with animal ownership. Thirdly, it will attempt to survey the industries that relied on by-products from exotic species and how these were used by society at large.

The talks 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.

A recording of this lecture will be made available after the event. If you would like to purchase a ticket to watch the recording only, please click 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

In the heart of Hyderabad stands a majestic building with a colossal Corinthian portico. Once the British Residency of Hyderabad State, it was constructed at the start of the 19th century as the official residence of the envoys of the East India Company. The grand mansion was the central location for the events of William Dalrymple’s book White Mughals, and became a visual symbol of power, dramatically changing Hyderabad’s architecture.

Since India’s independence it has been the pioneering Osmania University College for Women, and was recently upgraded to a university in its own right, the Telangana Mahila Viswa Vidyalayam. The building has now been restored following a major conservation programme coordinated by World Monuments Fund.

Conservation architect Anuradha Naik will explore the history of the structure, its occupants and its influence, and give a detailed account of the revelations unearthed by the recent restoration. Its design has traditionally been attributed to a 22-year-old East India Company engineer, but Naik presents the new theory that its true designer may have been the notable British architect Henry Holland.

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

A recording of this lecture will be made available after the event. If you would like to purchase a ticket to watch the recording only, please click here.

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, 11am

Join us for an exclusive introductory talk from the curator of the Style & Society: Dressing the Georgians exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery, London. Discover what fashion can tell us about life in the 18th century, a revolutionary period of trade, travel and technology which fuelled fashion trends across all levels of society. Delve into the Georgians’ style story and get up close to magnificent paintings, prints and drawings by artists including Gainsborough, Zoffany and Hogarth, as well as luxurious textiles, sparkling jewellery, and a range of accessories from snuff boxes to swords. After the talk members will be able to explore the exhibition.  

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.

£30, all day

There has been a town of Weymouth since the Middle Ages. What changed everything was sea bathing. Pevnser describes Weymouth as the ideal seaside resort par excellence. Ralph Allen of Bath first introduced  sea bathing in 1763. However in 1780 the King’s brother, the, Duke of Gloucester came here and the King George III himself came down in 1789 and then visited Weymouth regularly until 1805. To meet the needs of the Court and the growing number of visitors, a number of fine new terraces were built facing the sea as well as a new church, St. Mary, to meet the spiritual needs of the visitors. In the small streets behind the front, there are a large  number of attractive Georgian houses as well as the very classical  Guildhall.

We shall meet at Weymouth railway station at 10.30 am. This will be an all-day outing finishing at about 4 pm. The Tour will be led by John Moses.  

Members to make their own arrangements for lunch and 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.

£5 members/£7 non-members

Professor Norman Poser will describe the extraordinary garden party which Burgoyne arranged in 1774, and for which he wrote the play The Maid of the Oaks (Adam designed the ballroom for the party) to celebrate the marriage of Burgoyne’s nephew Lord Stanley (the future Earl of Derby) to Lady Elizabeth Hamilton. He will also describe the notorious scandal that followed the marriage, as well as Burgoyne’s career as a playwright and his liaison, after his wife died, with the actress Susan Caulfield.

The talks starts at 6.30pm.

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, 2pm

Commended in the category of restoration of a Georgian Country House at the 2022 Georgian Group Architectural Awards, Grade II* Bledlow Manor House, Buckinghamshire, is an early 18th century house remodelled in 1801.  Divided in the mid-20th century, It has been repaired, re-ordered and re-serviced as part of a comprehensive conservation project undertaken by Lord Carrington under the direction of Peregrine Bryant Architects. The tour will include visiting part of the house and garden and will be led by Lord and Lady Carrington alongside Peregrine Bryant.  

Members to make their own arrangements for transport. Refreshments are included in the visit.  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.

£15 members/£18 non-members

This talk reflects on the use of precedent in classical architecture from antiquity to the present day, interrogating perceptions that this presumes ‘copying’. There have indeed been times when the replication of hallowed exemplars was the done thing; this is, however, more the exception than the rule. Meanwhile the notion that working with tradition is necessarily mechanical and uncreative has been exaggerated by champions of modernism as a way of promoting their own causes. Novelty has always had its attractions, but it becomes a false god if put on too high a pedestal. And what is so wrong with repurposing the tried and tested?

A prize winner both as an architect and as an architectural historian, Mark Wilson Jones is unusually well placed to try to extract lessons of contemporary relevance from a minefield of polemic and paradox.

The talks 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.

£60, all day

Ampthill is a remarkable Grade II* private house uniquely opened to members. The central portion is the home of Sir Timothy Clifford, former Director of the National Galleries of Scotland and a leading collector. His old master paintings adorn the main rooms, which he has restored with his wife, Jane, the leading interior decorator.

Built originally for 1st Earl of Ailesbury in the 1680s, the principal north front is John Lumley’s of 1704-07, for a new owner, 1st Lord Ashburnham, with input by William Winde. In 1769 2nd Earl of Upper Ossory engaged Sir William Chambers to build the wings and create the present interior with plasterwork by Joseph Rose.

After lunch at Wrest Park, six miles away, members will tour this important house and garden, both Grade I, managed by English Heritage and designed (1834-39) by its owner Earl de Gray in Louis XV style. He was first President of the RIBA. We shall see numerous striking 18th century buildings in the garden and park of which Thomas Archer’s recently restored Baroque domed garden pavilion has an Ionic trompe l’oeil interior. The orangery, bathhouse and grotto were added in the late 18th century. Capability Brown was responsible for significant changes to the parks at both Ampthill and Wrest.  Andrew Wells will lead.

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.

£15 members/£18 non-members

In this talk David Adshead, Director of the Georgian Group, will look at the cultural impact of the discovery of Herculaneum and Pompeii. News of the excavation of these ancient Neopolitan cities sent an electric shock of excitement across Europe and beyond and served as a stimulus to the nascent Neoclassical movement.

Grand Tourists, artists and architects flocked to see the statuary, wall paintings and other artefacts that emerged unscathed from their volcanic overburden. Illustrated publications followed. These cities also caught the attention of philhellenes at a time before travel to Greece and, modern day, Turkey was common, for they had been Greek colonies before they were Roman. The discovery at Pompeii of a temple dedicated to the goddess Isis, decades before Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt, also triggered a fascination in all things Egyptian. Aspects of collecting, design and decoration were all directly or indirectly influenced as a result.

The talks 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.

£20, all day

Join the Young Georgians on a visit to Oxford, the city of spires!

We shall meet at 10:30am outside the Ashmolean Museum for a private guided tour by curator Dr Matthew Winterbottom, followed lunch there will be a private tour of Brasenose College arranged by fellow Young Georgian Ben Byfield. Afterwards we also hope to visit another college and further gems the city has to offer. Following the days formal proceedings, there may even be time for a punting and or ‘pubbing’ session weather permitting!

This event is open to Young Georgians only

£40, 9.30am-5pm

Currently undergoing a major restoration project by the Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust, Wentworth Woodhouse is one of the largest stately houses in Europe. Join us for a tour of recent developments led by Conservation Architect, Dorian Proudfoot of Donald Insall Architects.  This all-day visit will give Georgian Group members special insights and behind the scenes access to the ongoing restoration. 

The day will begin with an introduction from Sarah McLeod, Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust followed by a tour of the mansion, including a chance to visit the the repaired mansion roofs. After lunch (which members can visit the tea room or bring their own picnic), we will have a tour of the newly completed Camellia House and a hard hat tour of the current refurbishment of the stables.

Members to make their own arrangements for transport and Lunch. Refreshments are included. This visit is for Georgian Group members and their guests. 

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

Horace Walpole’s Strawberry Hill in Twickenham is a jewel of the Georgian Gothic Revival. It was not the first Gothic Revival house to be conceived of or constructed in the eighteenth century, but it was the most famous and influential; it even ‘spawned’ other Gothic houses, one of which Walpole referred to as a ‘child of Strawberry prettier than its parent’. Walpole fabricated Strawberry Hill over the course decades to be his new-old ancestral pile, and it was designed with the assistance of amateur, and, occasionally, professional ‘architects’. Creating this faked ancestral seat was not straightforward, and numerous designs for the house were rejected outright for specific reasons, or they were modified or inexplicably sidelined.

Emerging from Dr Peter Lindfield’s latest book, Unbuilt Strawberry Hill (2022) available to purchase on the evening, this lecture explores some of the more surprising revelations to emerge from Strawberry Hill’s history when rejected designs for its decoration and interiors are examined.

The talks 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, 6.30pm- 8.30pm

Members are invited to join us in the lovely surrounds of the Fitzroy Square gardens (weather permitting) for our summer drinks. This is an opportunity for members to meet and socialise in a relaxed atmosphere.  

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.

A summer outing for our young members (and potential young members) to meet and catch up at Apsley House (the outing has changed from the original venue, Osterley Park). There is no up-front cost to attend this trip which will be run on similar lines to the Hampton Court visit: attendees will organise their own travel and pay for their own entry. Booking in advance online using this link saves 10% on entry.

 https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/apsley-house/prices-and-opening-times/

 The group will meet at Apsley House at 11am and attendees are invited to bring a picnic to enjoy in the park afterwards. 

This event is open to Young Georgians and potential Young Georgians

The meeting will be held via Zoom in order to make it more accessible for those who live further from London. The meeting will recap what has happened over the past year and what is planned for the next. We strongly encourage your attendance and participation and request that any questions be submitted in advance to the YG email address so that they can be added to the running order. The link to join the Zoom meeting will be sent to all active YGs who have given their consent to receive additional communications when joining. If any YGs have not received the joining information by email, please contact members@georgiangroup.org.uk.

In anticipation of the meeting we are now inviting Expressions of Interest from those interested in serving on the YG Committee. The committee of volunteers assists the chair in managing all things YG and committee members are expected to organise a minimum of two events per annum. If this interests you please reply to yg@georgiangroup.org.uk by 15th July so that Freddie and Harrison can process the applications, and subject to how many we receive; candidates may be required to give a presentation on their suitability for committee membership.

£40, all day (10am – 4pm approx.)

Home to the Gage family for over 500 years, Firle Place was originally built in the 15th Century for Sir John Gage, the exterior of the house was dramatically altered in the 18th Century. Today, Firle is lived in by Henry Nicholas,  8th Viscount (b. 1934 -) and his family. At the 2022 Georgian Group Architectural Awards, two estate buildings were given commendations, the Shepherd’s Barn & Stable lavatories.  

After a tour of the house at Firle Place we will then move to Stanmer Park (own transport needed). Stanmer House, in Stanmer Park was given a simple early Georgian facade by Nicholas Dubois for Henry and then for his brother, Thomas Pelham in the early 1720s. The main part of the house survives, with some of the ground floor interiors.  We can see later alterations such as a new, simple stables of the 1770s and the mainly Georgian walls of the gardens which now house a restaurant and recently refurbed gardens.  Most of the park survives and is owned as a public space by the City of Brighton and Hove. This part of our day will be led by Sue Berry.  

Members to make their own arrangements for transport and lunch. 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.

£25, 6pm

After the Great Fire of London, Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723) rebuilt 51 churches. On this guided tour you’ll see several of his finest places of worship. Starting at City Information Centre St Paul’s Churchyard.

Among the Wren churches and building on this walk are:

• St Paul’s Cathedral
• Temple Bar
• St Nicholas Cole Abbey, with its distinctive galleon weathervane
• The spires of St Vedast Foster Lane and Christ Church Newgate Street
• St Mary-le-Bow, where you’ll learn about the origins of a London cockney and a strong connection to the United States
• St Mary Aldermary, an unusual gothic-style church with a stunning plasterwork ceiling
• St James Garlickhythe, known as ‘Wren’s Lantern’
• St Michael Paternoster Royal, associated with Dick Whittington
• St Stephen Walbook, with its impressive dome and stunning Henry Moore font

The walk ends near Bank Station.

The walk will be led by Sam Jacobs. Sam is a third generation Londoner and a qualified City of London guide.  He leads tours for the City of London corporation and Greater London Authority and the London Festival of Architecture. He’s worked in hi-tech in the City for 40 years with Banks & Insurance companies and is a graduate of Cambridge University. Sam’s a specialist in the art, architecture, sights, eating and drinking places, churches, synagogues, gardens and history of London and leads regular walks in the area. He’s written several  books about London’s sights, literature and hotels, pubs and restaurants. He runs several walks focusing on the buildings, legacy and history of Sir Christopher Wren.

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.

Young Georgian Members & Members £10/ Non-Members £15

Behind the well-known contributions of Scottish architects like Robert Adam to the architecture of Georgian London lay a host of forgotten, now mostly lost, buildings associated with Scottish life in the metropolis. These were the luxurious townhouses patronised and decorated for Scottish landowners in the West End which vied in magnificence with those of their social peers from England, Wales and Ireland. This talk showcases six of the finest Scottish townhouses in eighteenth-century London, a series of overlooked buildings which chart the process of Scottish political and material integration into the British state after the Union of 1707. Recovering accounts of these lost urban mansions offers a wealth of Georgian delights, including Lady Ancram’s chinoiserie dressing room in Berkeley Square, Lord Hopetoun’s patriotic illuminations in Cavendish Square, and Lord Fife’s magnificent “Scottish” garden terrace in Whitehall.

Rory Lamb is an architectural historian completing his PhD at the University of Edinburgh funded by the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities. In June-July 2021, he was an Honorary Research Fellow with the Survey of London at the Bartlett School of Architecture where he undertook a reassessment of Montagu House in Portman Square, by James “Athenian” Stuart. Before beginning his PhD Rory worked as a heritage consultant in Belfast.

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

Young Georgian members and 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.

Image: Richard Newton, A Flight of Scotchmen, 1796; © The Trustees of the British Museum

£30

Bishop George Morley was one of Charles II most trusted and loyal courtiers whose sharp intellect and deft strategising whilst in exile with the King paved the way for the Restoration. In 1662 he was made Bishop of Winchester and there built afresh on the remnants of this Royal city.

11:15am Meet outside the west end of the cathedral prior to a tour of the Morley Library by Cydel David followed by a tour of this ancient landmark, its Kings and Scribes exhibition, and the grave of Jane Austen.

Lunch will be a ‘find your own’ affair with time to explore the close.

In the afternoon we are privileged to visit the deanery, a sprawling mediaeval complex, rebuilt in Carolean Gothic by Bishop Morley in the 1660s. There we will view an exceptional survival, a manuscript poem by Jane Austen.

Tea and cakes will conclude the day at a regency country house a short drive from Winchester with lifts back to Winchester station by 6pm.

As with previous trips to Hampshire, if YGs wish to find themselves accommodation nearby there may be further extempore architectural exploration the following Sunday morning.

Run by: Frederick Hervey-Bathurst & Cydel David. 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.

£40, 2pm

Painshill 18th century landscape garden was created between 1738 and 1773, by the Hon. Charles Hamilton. Inspired by landscape paintings and his Grand Tours across Europe, he created a sequence of breathtaking and surprising vistas. The landscapes form living works of art into which Hamilton placed follies for dramatic effect. This tour will start with an introduction in the kitchen garden followed by a tour of the park lasting approx. 1.5hrs and will finish with cream tea and a look at items from the Painshill collection.

Members to make their own arrangements for transport. Refreshments are included in the visit.  This visit is open to all. 

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

£50

Wolterton Park, Norfolk, was built to the design of the Office of Works architect Thomas Ripley, between 1725 and 1741, for Horatio, 1st Lord Walpole, the brother of our first Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole.  George Stanley Repton, one of Humphry Repton’s sons, designed the east wing and pavilion and added the stairs and perron on the garden side in the late 1820s. Winner of the Georgian Group Architectural Award for Restoration of a Georgian Country House in 2022, Wolterton Park had been left derelict for 30 years before the present owners Peter Sheppard and Keith Day purchased the estate in 2016. They have lovingly restored the house, gardens and estate buildings. The owner- led tour will begin in the house, followed the gardens and will conclude with a champagne and canapé reception in the Saloon.  

Refreshments and canapé reception are included with this visit. This event is for members and their guests. 

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

Young Georgian Members & Members £10/ Non-Members £15

Join Alice as she delves into the delights of UPROAR!: Satire, Scandal and Printmakers in Georgian London – a brilliant new history of Georgian Britain through the eyes of the artists who immortalised it. Set against a backdrop of royal madness, political intrigue, the birth of modern celebrity, French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, UPROAR! follows the satirists as they lampoon those in power, from George III and Napoleon, to the Prince Regent and Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. In this talk, Alice will discuss the challenges of writing a history book, and provide an insight into the world of history publishing and programming today.

Alice Loxton is a 27-year-old historian, writer and presenter. She is passionate about bringing history to mainstream audiences and has worked with History Hit, NBC, Channel 4, Call of Duty, LadBible, Minecraft, Xbox, BBC Bitesize, The National Trust and many other charities and organisations. She shares her love of history via her social media channels, where she has over a million followers (@history_alice).

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

Young Georgian members and 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, all day

Led by Dr Sue Berry. A day in Lewes, exploring a changing provincial centre and market town which still has many facades of the period, but nothing showy or elaborate. This was a town which, in the Georgian period was updated mainly by refacing houses and investing more in the churches, chapels and business. And finally the town hall, which is now the Law Courts.

The day will start with a talk about how the town evolved during the eighteenth century which concentrates on where development took place and why, and on the revamping and building of churches and chapels.

We will then explore the western end of the town, on the ridge where our lecture room is and look and how it changed and why and go down to the prosperous suburb of Southover.  Thus, she will see where most of the bigger houses were erected.  After lunch (taken independently) we will explore the lower lying part of the town, known as Cliffe which became a network of small homes, businesses and beer shops and subject to arrangement access a very fine and little known ‘preaching box’ chapel of our period.

The day will run from 10am until 4pm.

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

Dr Sue Berry FSA, FRHistS has been studying the history of Georgian seaside resorts for some time. Her articles about Brighton are mainly in the Journal of the Georgian Group, and the Collections of the Sussex Archeological Society. Many can down be downloaded free via the sites of both organisations. She is currently looking at how the economies functioned and just how different they were from other Georgian towns.  She lectures, mainly nowadays on Zoom – a wonderful means of access audiences who might otherwise not easily hear talks about research into our past.

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