Guildhall Library Events Jan-Apr 2015

GUILDHALL EVENTS

LIBRARY AND EXHIBITIONS The Library of London History

JANUARY-APRIL SOYER AND THACKERAY – A TALE OF FOOD AND CLASS Thursday 12 March, 6-8pm

CITY GUIDES –AMBASSADORS OF THE SQUARE MILE Until 14 March

Guildhall Library Aldermanbury, London EC2V 7HH 020 7332 1868 / 020 7332 1870 guildhall.library@cityoflondon.gov.uk www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/guildhalllibrary Follow

© Illustrated London News/Mary Evans Picture Library

ALL EVENTS REQUIRE BOOKING AND TAKE PLACE AT GUILDHALL LIBRARY. EVENTS ARE FREE UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED. DETAILS OF HOW TO BOOK CAN BE FOUND ON THE BACK PAGE Thursday 8 January, 2-3.30pm

EVENTS

THE HISTORY AND TREASURES OF GUILDHALL LIBRARY

Join our librarians to learn about the history of Guildhall Library, tour the building (including behind the scenes!) and view some of the library’s treasures.

Tuesday 20 January, 6-8pm

DARK STREETS AND LIGHT LAUGHTER: ENTERTAINMENT IN LONDON DURING THE GREAT WAR

© Guildhall Library, City of London

‘The Pantropheon or History of Food’

by A. Soyer

Tuesday 13 January, 2-3pm

WILLIAM MORRIS AT WORK This talk by Pete Smith, a former university Head of Arts and a volunteer guide at Morris’s Hammersmith house, covers the work and the extraordinary life of a Victorian titan: poet, painter, designer, businessman, carver, weaver, printer, conservationist, political activist and much more.

Costumes from the stage show, Chu Chin Chow from The Tatler, 12 September 1917

Lucinda Gosling talks about the thriving entertainment industry in London during the First World War. From popular theatre stars to glamorous nightclubs, and cartoons to art exhibitions, Luci will explain how having fun and laughter helped the nation through some of the darkest of times, and reveals some little-known aspects of life on the home front one hundred years ago.

£5 plus booking fee. Includes wine reception.

Wednesday 21 January, 2-3pm

GETTING TO GRIPS WITH DISCOVERY SEARCHING

City of London Libraries have recently launched a discovery search, which means you can now use one search for all our print and e-resources. This workshop helps you get the most out of this tool.

© Niki Gorick Photography

Wednesdays 21 January-11 March (8-week course), 2-4pm

TRACING YOUR FAMILY HISTORY: A BEGINNER’S COURSE

Aimed at those who are new to family history, the course will cover all the essentials to help you start tracing your ancestors. Each week we will look at different sources and include practical sessions, as well as opportunities to engage with original records held at Guildhall Library.

£80, booking essential. Call 020 7332 1868.

Matt Gedge by Mansion House d​ oing​one of his ‘Liar, Liar’ Fun Tours

Tuesday 27 January, 2-3pm

ON VIEW IN TRAFALGAR SQUARE

The choice of location for the National Gallery was influenced by how the nation wanted to be seen on the world stage and was crucial to defining the collection’s purpose: to be used by all. However, it quickly gave rise to issues resulting from the limited amount of space to grow, the need to manage mounting numbers of visitors, and the dangers of city grime and polluted air. Join Jessica Weatherup to learn more.

Wednesday 4 February, 2-3pm

DICKENS OF LONDON

For Dickens, London was more than a setting for his novels. It was a major character in his writings and even a collaborator: the ‘magic lantern’ that inspired and energised him. This talk

by Pete Smith will be followed by an associated walk.

Thursday 22 January, 2-3pm

CITY GUIDES: TALES OF THE CITY

© Pete Smith

Niki Gorick will talk about her images and how she created her latest 26-print photo-set by capturing the diversity of the City Guides’ work across The Square Mile. City Guides will regale you with stories from the many varied walks illustrated.

© Pete Smith

Tuesday 10 February, 2-3pm

STATE PROPERTY – MY COLD WAR MEMOIR

EVENTS

In 1979, while a teenager in Ceausescu’s Romania, Mariana Gordan was arrested, charged with high treason and conspiring against the state for befriending foreign tourists. Join her to hear how she escaped a 30-year jail sentence in a communist prison, the ups and downs of her life in the UK as a political refugee during the height of the Cold War, and how she returned to Romania in the middle of the revolution in 1989.

GUIDED WALK

Wednesday 4 February, 3.15-5.15pm

DICKENS IN THE CITY

This walk from Guildhall Yard makes its way through the heart of the Square Mile to lace together key scenes from Dickens’s life and his novels, from Scrooge’s countinghouse to the building where the young Dickens encountered a thieving dog and two giants.

Thursday 12 February, 6-8pm

DEATH IN DISGUISE: THE AMAZING TRUE STORY OF THE CHELSEA MURDERS

£8, pay on the day, no booking required

Violent crime was unheard of in the leafy suburb of Victorian Chelsea, so the ferocious double murder of an elderly man of God and his faithful housekeeper in May 1870 shocked residents to the core. With no direct evidence to place the suspect at either of the crime scenes; solving the crime relied on the discovery of a packing box dripping with blood, and the capture of a mysterious French nephew. Gary Powell examines this extraordinary case.

Thursday 5 February, 2-3.30pm

THE HISTORY AND TREASURES OF GUILDHALL LIBRARY

See January’s entry for details ‘The Pantropheon or History of Food’ by A. Soyer

£5 plus booking fee. Includes wine reception.

Tuesday 17 February, 2-3pm

ELECTRONIC RESOURCES

© Guildhall Library, City of London

This session is aimed at people who would like to learn about our biographical, family history and London digital resources. The workshop will look at digitised newspapers, Ancestry. co.uk, Find My Past, the Dictionary of National Biography and the City of London’s image database COLLAGE.

Tuesday 24 February, 6-8pm

THE AIR WAR ON LONDON, 1915-1918

Tuesday 17 February, 6-8pm

A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH COOKBOOK FROM BEOWULF TO MARY BERRY

SPECIAL EVENT

EXHIBITION LATE VIEW

From Anglo-Saxon feasts and Plantagenet banquets to the rationing of WWII and the Great British Bake off, recipes have recorded the extraordinary history of a unique and ever changing diet.

So, come along and discover the cookbook history of one of the world’s greatest cuisines – yes, we do mean English cooking!

Includes an exclusive late view of the exhibition.

£5 plus booking fee.

Includes a drinks and canapé reception.

When we think of London at War it’s usually the Blitz of 1940-41 that comes to mind. But just a generation before that tragic event London was subjected to a periodic but disquieting attack from Zeppelins and bombing planes that left Londoners jittery, and showed the London authorities not up to the job of defending the capital. Join Jerry White to learn more.

£5 plus booking fee. Includes a wine reception.

Thursday 26 February, 2-3pm

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE LIBRARY OF THE WORSHIPFUL COMPANY OF GARDENERS’ Offering a little taste of summer during the winter months, this illustrated talk by Assistant Librarian Jeanie Smith will introduce you to some of the delightful and fascinating books in this collection.

Wednesday 18 February, 2 – 3pm

AN INTRODUCTION TO VICTORIAN ARTISTS AT ST. PAUL’S PART 1

“Paxton’s magazine of botany and register of flowering plants”

© Guildhall Library, City of London

Stuart Harvey continues his series of illustrated talks by looking at the lives and work of Victorian painters, including Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais.

LONDON’S VILLAGES: CHELSEA

© Pete Smith

Tuesday 10 March, 2-3pm

Window by John Hayward in St Mary le Bow

EVENTS

Over the years, Chelsea has housed sinners and at least one saint. It has been a royal route, the haunt of artists, poets and philosophers, the scandalous home of ground-breaking drama and the Sixties heart of Swinging London. Pete Smith explores this fascinating and complex district in an illustrated talk.

Thursday 5 March, 2-3pm

STAINED GLASS IN THE CITY

GUIDED WALK

Thursday 12 March, 10.15 for a 10.30am start

Discover the stained glass of the City in this illustrated talk by Alexandra Epps. Explore the history of stained glass – its making and meaning, its symbolism and spiritual dimensions and above all its visual beauty. Experience the variety of artistic styles to be found in the beautiful windows of many of the historic churches of the City.

Window by Clayton and Bell in St Michael Cornhill

STAINED GLASS IN THE CITY

Explore the magical qualities of the beautiful stained glass windows to be found within a selection of the historic churches of the City – discover both old and modern windows and experience their pure colour, variety of artistic styles and intrinsic spirituality.

£10 booking essential Meet at entrance to The Guildhall Art Gallery, Guildhall Yard, London EC2V 7HH

SOYER AND THACKERAY – A TALE OF FOOD AND CLASS © Alexandra Epps

Alexis Soyer was the first chef of the Reform Club, and for years its chief attraction. He saw himself as an artist, outside class. But for William Thackeray, a club member, his social pretensions were richly comic. Join Ruth Brandon to hear how Soyer’s career, both at the Reform Club and after he left it, improbably illuminates the Victorian class system.

£5 plus booking fee. Includes a wine reception

SPECIAL EVENT

Thursday 12 March, 6-8pm

Wednesday 18 March, 2-3pm

Stuart Harvey continues his series of illustrated talks with a look at a fishing village that became the home of royalty, courtiers, artists and Maids of Honour, as well as the world renowned Botanic Gardens.

Tuesday 24 March, 2-3.30pm

THE HISTORY AND TREASURES OF GUILDHALL LIBRARY

See January’s entry for details.

Wednesday 25 March, 2-3pm

Wednesday 25 March, 2-3pm

MRS ISABELLA BEETON – VICTORIAN DOMESTIC GODDESS?

SPECIAL EVENT

KEW VILLAGE AND GARDENS

Tina Baxter looks at the short, eventful life of Mrs Beeton, the author and compiler of the 24 monthly instalments which became The Book of Household Management. Despite being accused of plagiarism and not being a cook, Mrs Beeton offered a new way of working with ingredients which was simpler to follow and emphasised thrift and economy.

© Guildhall Library, City of London

GETTING TO GRIPS WITH DISCOVERY SEARCHING See January’s entry for details.

UNSTITCHING THE UNIFORM Discover the fascinating stories and rich social history hidden within the British Postal Museum & Archive’s Uniform Collection. Join Curator Joanna Espin, and explore the development of postal uniforms, the lives of the people who wore them, and the cultural significance they held.

£5 plus booking fee, Includes a wine reception.

© British Postal Museum and Archive

Thursday 26 March, 6-8pm

THE LOST WORLD OF THE GEORGIAN CHOCOLATE HOUSE © Guildhall Library, City of London

EVENTS

Monday 30 March, 6-8pm

AN EVENING TO DIE FOR: PLAGUE, STORYTELLING AND HISTORICAL SOURCES

In this workshop/lecture Assistant Librarian Isabelle Chevallot will explore the Bills of Mortality held at Guildhall Library. There will be an opportunity to view a variety of original sources and contemporary accounts of the Great Plague of 1665 held in the library. The evening will be rounded off with an atmospheric plague storytelling session and a glass of wine.

£5 plus booking fee. Includes a wine reception Wednesday 1 April, 2-3pm

Tracey Warr will talk about the history behind her new novel, The Viking Hostage, set in late 10th century France and Wales, weaving together the stories of three women living through turbulent power struggles, Viking raids, and fears of The End of Time. Their stories tangle with questions of freedom and courage in the often brutal society of early medieval Europe.

Join London historian Dr Matthew Green for an illustrated talk exploring some of the great chocolate houses of Georgian London. Discover how a bitter, luxuriant and exotically spiced glop called chocolate conquered Baroque Europe and came to corrupt the most exclusive address in London, St James’s, spawning seditious hotbeds of decadence, depravity and despair that Londoners came to love and fear as chocolate houses.

£5 plus booking fee. Includes free servings of Monsieur St Disdier’s Baroque hot chocolate.

Thursday 9 April, 2-3pm

TRACES OF PIMLICO’S PAST

A strong drink, a Hoxton hostelry, or a coastal region of North Carolina.

Which of these gave Pimlico its name? In this illustrated talk Rob Kayne examines the lively history of this district bounded by the Thames and two other rivers.

Hear about Celtic finds, the manor of Eia, Samuel Pepys up a tree, Florence Nightingale’s industrial uncle, and a canal with no boats.

Tuesday 14 April, 6-8pm

A TASTE OF SPRING

Ever wondered where the recipe for gingerbread came from? Would you like to sample dishes served to Kings and Queens, and find out how recipes have changed since the 15th century?

To celebrate Isabella Beeton, we are tracing many sweet dishes through the ages. Come along to taste these confections made from original recipes in an edible exhibition hosted

by Marjory Szurko, Librarian of Oriel College, Oxford.

£5 plus booking fee, booking essential.

Includes wine reception

EDIBLE EXHIBITION

THE END OF TIME: 10TH CENTURY VIKINGS AND WOMEN IN FRANCE AND WALES

SPECIAL EVENT

Tuesday 7 April, 6-8pm Bills of Mortality

Wednesday 15 April, 2-3 pm

This illustrated talk by Robert Stephenson will relate the chequered early history of a cemetery that ultimately acquired one of England’s finest architectural funerary complexes.

Uniquely Brompton is a nationalised cemetery and run by the Royal Parks. Hear about its buildings, monuments and some of its 800 notable occupants.

Tuesday 21 April, 2-3pm

BOOK PRINTING AT THE WINDMILL PRESS

In 1956, at the age of 15, Roy Hamilton began his career in book printing, as a compositor with William Heinemann Ltd. at the Windmill Press in Kingswood, Surrey. Join him to learn how Book Printing was done, using moveable type, and hear his experiences of working in this dying trade.

© Robert Stephenson

BROMPTON CEMETERY – IMPRESSIVE ARCHITECTURE AND FASCINATING OCCUPANTS Brompton Cemetery

Thursday 23 April, 2-3pm

ELECTRONIC RESOURCES See February’s entry for details

Tuesday 28 April, 2-3.30pm

THE HISTORY AND TREASURES OF GUILDHALL LIBRARY

See January’s entry for details

Thursday 30 April, 6-8pm

THE KING’S BED: SEX, POWER AND THE COURT OF CHARLES II

Charles II’s personal life was anything but private and his amorous liaisons were largely conducted in royal palaces surrounded by friends, courtiers and hundreds of servants and soldiers. Don Jordan and Michael Walsh take you inside Charles’ palace to meet the array of personalities within, and tell the compelling story of a king ruled by his passion.

£5 plus booking fee.

Includes a wine reception.

© Niki Gorick Photography

​Right, Tim Kidd​ explain​s the origins of City institutions to Chinese students and interns​in Change Alley​.

Far right, Amber RaneyKincade on the roof of One New Change doing her ‘Mary Poppins’ tour

EXHIBITIONS

Until 10 January

PHILANTHROPY: THE CITY STORY

Philanthropy is one of London’s hidden stories. Yet the City can trace 800 years of philanthropic giving.

This generosity and foresight laid the foundations of the Capital and established sophisticated ideas around private wealth and public good. Exhibition created by the Charterhouse and the Museum of London, and funded by the City Bridge Trust.

FREE

Until 14 March

CITY GUIDES – AMBASSADORS OF THE SQUARE MILE

The City’s 2,000 years of history, architecture and customs is complex and fascinating. From ex-policemen and journalists to teachers and secretaries, the City Guides bring a wealth of knowledge to reveal the full delights of this unique part of London.

Niki Gorick’s latest photography exhibition shows these entertaining educators at work.

FREE

21 January-17 April

HIGHLIGHTS: FOOD EVENT

CELEBRITY COOKS: MRS BEETON AND HER CONTEMPORARIES

150 years after her death, Mrs Beeton is still one of the most important figures in food history. But where did she fit into the world of 19th-century celebrity cooks? From her beginnings in the City to the publication of The Book of Household Management, this exhibition examines her impact then and now.

Look out for our special events to accompany the exhibition.

FREE

FOOD AND THE CITY

The City of London has been a focal point for the acquisition, sale and consumption of food and Guildhall Library itself holds a remarkable collection on food and wine. In this exhibition artist-in-residence Simon Gregor presents photographs of some of the less commonly seen documents from the library’s collection, as well as images which depict our relationship with food in the City today.

© Simon Gregor Photography

30 March – 7 August.

FREE

From The Book of Household Management

© Guildhall Library, City of London

GUILDHALL EVENTS

LIBRARY AND EXHIBITIONS The Library of London History

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ALL EVENTS REQUIRE BOOKING AND TAKE PLACE AT GUILDHALL LIBRARY. PLEASE BOOK THROUGH EVENTBRITE: WWW.GHLEVENTS.EVENTBRITE.CO.UK IF YOU HAVE ANY QUERIES REGARDING BOOKING PLEASE CONTACT: GHLEVENTS@CITYOFLONDON.GOV.UK OR 020 7332 1869/1871 Guildhall Library Aldermanbury, London EC2V 7HH 020 7332 1868 / 020 7332 1870 guildhall.library@cityoflondon.gov.uk www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/guildhalllibrary

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Guildhall Library opening hours: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 9.30am-5pm Wednesday 9.30am-7.30pm Alternate Saturdays 9.30am-5pm Please check our website for more details

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