Lectures

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Friday 25 July 2025 – The Field of Cloth of Gold: 6,000 Englishmen in France for 18 days – how did they do it?

Lecturer: Joanna Mabbutt

In June 1520 Henry VIII and Francis I meet to ratify an Anglo-French alliance and celebrate the betrothal of Henry’s daughter Mary to the Dauphin. The two handsome ‘Renaissance Princes’ have imperial ambitions and are eager to display themselves as magnificent nobleman and warrior kings. Each brings an entourage of 6,000 to a field south of Calais for 18 days of various events and entertainments staged to display the skill and splendour of each King and country.

Friday 26 September 2025 – Upstairs, Downstairs -The Upsides and Downsides

Lecturer: Simon Williams

My first lucky break was the role of Captain James Bellamy in Upstairs Downstairs, my most recent that of Justin Elliott in The Archers. So in 50 years I’ve gone from one cad to another. In between my career has been a roller coaster ride of successes and the flops, the upsides and downsides of a ‘showbiz’ life. I’ve worked with a wide range of people including Peter Sellers, Joan Collins, David Jason, Nigel Havers, Marianne Faithful, Noel Coward, Judi Dench, Alan Bennett, Glenda Jackson. I’ll be sharing some secrets and maybe dishing some dirt.

Friday 24 October 2025 – Priceless Peggy – Peggy Guggenheim

Lecturer: Alexandra Epps

Peggy Guggenheim was the ‘poor little rich girl’ who changed the face of twentieth century art. Not only was she a woman ahead of her time but also one who helped to define it. She discovered and nurtured a new generation of artists producing a new kind of art. Through collecting not only art, but often the artists themselves, her life was as radical as her collection.

Friday 28 November 2025 – The Golden Age of British Comedy

Lecturer: Tyler Butterworth

It’s said in our theatrical history that there was a Golden Age of British Comedy. It ran from the 1970’s to the 1980’s and occurred as we started to drift away from theatres and radios, and found ourselves living through a wonderfully rich period of television comedy. Some say this period has never been bettered.

Friday 23 January 2026 – The Festival of Britain 1951, A Nation celebrated

Lecturer: Matthew Denney

In 1951, up and down the country, the nation celebrated. It celebrated with events from the lavish displays on the South Bank of the Thames and at Battersea to the events held on village greens and in village halls across the land. A nation still recovering from the physical, financial and mental struggles of the recent World War decided to hold a party for the country. This talk will consider the reasons why the Festival was held, some of the characters involved, what motivated them and the resulting events and the wonderful design, art and architecture that flourished during the Festival year.

Friday 27 February 2026 – The people and portraits of Stanley Spencer’s final years

Lecturer: Amy Lim

Stanley Spencer (1891-1959) is one of the greatest British artists of the twentieth century. Although less well known than his imaginative paintings, portraiture was also an important part of Spencer’s artistic practice, especially in his final decade, when he was in high demand as a commercial portrait painter. This lecture will explore Spencer’s views on portraiture, and the role it played in his life and work. Through his paintings, we will meet many of the people around him, from friends and neighbours to figures of national importance.

Friday 27 March 2026 – The Tudor Court and its World: The Paintings, Drawings and Miniatures of Holbein and Hilliard

Lecturer: Mark Cottle

The Tudor court and its world are captured unforgettably by Hans Holbein under Henry VIII and Nicholas Hilliard under Elizabeth 1. Between them, these two artists transformed English art. Holbein set radically new standards in portraiture, in his hauntingly evocative drawings and his exquisite miniatures. Hilliard, in turn, effectively established the miniature – “England’s greatest contribution to the art of the Renaissance” (Sir Roy Strong) – as the art form, personal and public, which would last unchallenged until the arrival of photography in the 1840’s. Without these two artists, English art as a whole could be immeasurably the poorer

Friday 24 April 2026 – Vincennes to Sevres

Lecturer: Anne Haworth

Sèvres was the most illustrious and innovative porcelain factory in 18th Century France, employing brilliant artisans as painters, modellers, gilders and technicians. Spectacular vases and finely decorated dining services made at Sèvres added lustre and glamour to the grandest of state rooms and the most intimate of boudoirs in the nearby Palace of Versailles. These objects of desire were sought after by the nobility during Europe’s Ancien Régime, by English collectors such as the Prince Regent and, generations later, by a new moneyed aristocracy in America’s ‘Gilded Age’. However, the origins of this most fashionable porcelain factory were very different.

Friday 22 May 2026 – John Singer Sargent and Fashion

Lecturer: Cindy Polemis

John Singer Sargent was THE international art star of the Gilded Age. He was most famous for his dramatic and stylish portraits of the elegant and wealthy. He brought his subjects to life but also used fashion as a powerful tool to depict identity and personality. Cindy Polemis explores how John Singer Sargent ‘fashioned’ his world.

Friday 26 June 2026 – The genius of Rene Lalique

Lecturer: Andy McConnell

René Lalique was the 20th century’s greatest glass designer/entrepreneur. Lalique’s extraordinary work was unrivalled, combining his unique visual sense with a perfect understanding of glassmaking technologies and revolutionary approach to marketing. This talk is a visual feast, covers Lalique’s early work in jewels and furniture before he dedicated the remainder of his life, c1905-45, to glass. His output spanned simple, pressed cosmetic pots through car mascots and stemware to the unique cire perdu [lost wax] vases that today can command tens and even millions of pounds.

Friday 24 July 2026 – The other Sack of Rome

Lecturer: Sarah Dunant

By the 1520s Rome, fuelled by the wealth of the catholic church, was the great centre of the renaissance. But in 1527 the unthinkable happened and for only the second time in her history, the city was invaded by an army of unpaid and half starving mercenaries. Many were German Lutherans with an intense hatred of Catholics and the Pope, who they saw as ruling over a cesspit of corruption and pornography. (Spoiler alert: they were not wrong). Palaces and homes were occupied, their owners killed and tortured to reveal treasure. Convents and monasteries were sacked, inmates raped and murdered, art and relics destroyed.