Guildhall Library Events January to April 2018

GUILDHALL EVENTS

LIBRARY AND EXHIBITIONS The Library of London History

JANUARY-APRIL 2018 30 January, 2-3pm

HISTORY OF BIRDS BOOKS: USED AND ABUSED Exhibition 15 January – 9 March

Guildhall Library Aldermanbury, London EC2V 7HH guildhall.library@cityoflondon.gov.uk www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/guildhalllibrary

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BOOKING IS ESSENTIAL AND WE CANNOT ENSURE A PLACE WITHOUT A TICKET. DETAILS OF HOW TO BOOK CAN BE FOUND ON THE BACK PAGE

©Rachel Cole-Wilkin

EVENTS ARE FREE UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED. ALL EVENTS HAVE LIMITED PLACES.

Thursday 1 February, 6-8pm

Tuesday 16 January, 1-1.30pm

THE HOUNDSDITCH MURDERS AND THEIR LEGACY TODAY

The gruesome Houndsditch Murders in 1910 involved the killing of three unarmed policemen by an armed gang, and led to a national debate about the nature of policing, and whether or not the police should be armed. Join Peter Clarke for a short talk about the objects related to the incident, and reflect on its impact today, at a time when the debate about armed police officers is especially pertinent.

Limited places

Thursday 18 January, 2-3.30pm

Wednesday 24 January, 2-3pm

HISTORY AND TREASURES OF GUILDHALL LIBRARY

THE THOMAS CRAPPER LEGACY

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.

Possibly the biggest name in bathrooms, he has become the stuff of legend, but what of the real entrepreneur who lived and worked during some of the most pivotal years in the history of public health?

Join Rachel Cole-Wilkin, the creator of London Loo Tours, in unpicking fact from fiction and exploring Thomas Crapper’s role in the larger picture of the development of the water closet and its impact on public and private life as we know it.

WORKSHOP Tuesday 23 January, 2-3pm

INTRODUCTION TO ANCESTRY AND FAMILY HISTORY

Aimed at beginners, this workshop

by Assistant Librarian Melanie Strong will cover the basics of starting your family history search on Ancestry.

It will cover the best way to search, using Parish Registers, Birth, Marriages and Deaths records and the UK censuses.

Tuesday 30 January, 2-3pm

HISTORY OF BIRDS

©Simon Wills

Have you ever wondered how birds got their names? Why did our ancestors think the lapwing was treacherous and the sparrow lustful, but praise the crow? What bird did Charles II keep in his bedroom, and which feathered friend did Florence Nightingale carry in her pocket? To help celebrate Big Garden BirdWatch, Simon Wills wildlife photographer and author of the book A History of Birds, talks about how people and birds have interacted over the centuries. You may be in for a few surprises.

Feisty, canny, cunning, conniving and endlessly intellectually curious, Caroline of Ansbach is one of the most remarkable consorts in British Royal history, the orphan of a tiny German state who taught herself to read and write, wowed the future George II with overwhelming sex appeal and made it her mission to anglicise Britain’s new Hanoverian dynasty.

Join author Matthew Dennison to learn more.

£7 plus booking fee. Includes wine reception.

©Matthew Dennison

EVENTS

POLICE MUSEUM SPECIAL EVENT

THE FIRST IRON LADY: A LIFE OF CAROLINE OF ANSBACH

Thursday 8 February, 2-3pm

LONDON IN FOUR SUITS: HEARTS

Monday 5 February, 2-3pm ©Pete Smith

ELECTRONIC RESOURCES

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.

©Guy Rowston

EVENTS

In this illustrated talk, Pete Smith will explore some of the capital’s affairs of the heart, both lucky and unlucky. You can expect optimistic assignations, regretful leave-takings and more than a sprinkling of cads and flirts. Oh, and more than one soppy statue.

THE KINGSWAY – BOULEVARD FOR AN EMPIRE?

’The Kingsway, the Kingsway’ sang Dame Clara Butt in an Elgar song for London’s biggest piece of town planning since John Nash. Conceived as an Imperial boulevard to emulate Paris, it was the scene of rioting American soldiers, roller skating suffragettes, Pavarotti’s first recording, Ready Steady Go!, a police raid on suffragette headquarters and an underground tramway. But did it live up to its original intentions?

Guy Rowston takes us down the widest street in London.

WALK Wednesday 14 February, 11am-12.30pm

LONDONERS IN LOVE

Celebrating St Valentine’s Day with a look at London’s lovers, both real and fictional, this circular walk, led by Pete Smith, starts from the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral, close to the statue of Queen Anne, and heads off, appropriately enough, to the church of St Bride’s, Fleet Street. Proposals en route are encouraged but not compulsory. ©Stuart Harvey

£8, pay on the day, no booking required Meet at the steps of St. Pauls Cathedral

WORKSHOP Tuesday 20 February, 2-3pm

LONDON SOURCES ON ANCESTRY

Tuesday 6 February, 2-3pm

THE FLEET PART 1

This workshop by Assistant Librarian Melanie Strong will look at different databases for London history on Ancestry. It will cover Wills, Land Tax, Poll books, Electoral Registers, Rate Books, Records of the Poor (Workhouse records), School records and Freedom of the City. It will show how you can find the different databases, and what sort of information you can learn from these records.

Wednesday 21 February, 2-3pm

THE MEDIAEVAL PRECINCT OF ST PAUL’S CATHEDRAL

Wren’s St Paul’s Cathedral stands on Ludgate Hill in the heart of our 21st Century City, with offices, shops and restaurants almost in touching distance. It seems to welcome you in as you pass by. Its mediaeval predecessor was very different. Like cathedrals up and down the country it stood within a gated walled precinct (within the old walled city) – in many ways, a world of its own.

This talk by City of London Guide Jill Finch aims to recreate that precinct with a Cathedral surrounded by buildings, a churchyard and even a prison.

©Jill Finch

©Pete Smith

Stuart Harvey continues with another of his illustrated talks this time following the approximate line of one of London’s lost rivers from its source to Kings Cross Station. Old Saint Pancras Church was situated on the bank of the Fleet and its churchyard has a significant and varied population from the past.

Thursday 15 February, 2-3pm

EXHIBITION EVENT

BOOKS: USED AND ABUSED EXHIBITION Thursday 22 February, 2-3pm

WORKSHOP Thursday 8 March, 2-3pm

That book you love is falling to bits (and the sellotape has made it worse)… help is at hand! Come along with your own book(s) for a one-toone with our exhibition curators and a conservator. Learn about your book, and how books are conserved for future generations.

Join Assistant Librarian & Keeper of the Lloyd’s Marine Collection Jeanie Smith to explore tales of ships and shipwrecks using the resources in this historic collection. This workshop will offer an opportunity to look at material from this Merchant Navy collection from 1741 to the present.

THE LLOYD’S MARINE COLLECTION

HANDS ON ADVICE SESSION

EVENTS

10 minutes booking slots available.

WALK Tuesday 27 February, 11am

THE MEDIAEVAL PRECINCT OF ST PAUL’S CATHEDRAL

This walk by City of London Guide Jill Finch is a stroll around the City streets which for centuries formed the boundaries of the walled and gated precinct of St Paul’s Cathedral.

It also takes you into the present day churchyard to find hints of that bustling, colourful, noisy enclave – less religious sanctuary, more medieval shopping mall.

Meet Jill at the Firefighters Memorial (corner of Sermon Lane and Carter Lane EC4V 5EY).£8, pay on the day, no booking required

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.

Thursday 15 March, 2-3pm

INTO THE LIVING SEA OF WAKING DREAMS: THE LIFE AND POETRY OF JOHN CLARE

John Clare (1793 – 1864) was described by his biographer as ‘the greatest labouring-class poet that England has ever produced. No one has ever written more powerfully of nature, of a rural childhood, and of the alienated and unstable self.’ Join Principal Librarian Dr Peter Ross to learn about the fascinating but tragic life of Clare, who was once the toast of London literary society but ended his days in the Northampton Asylum. The Keats House Poetry Ambassadors will be with us to read a selection of Clare’s beautiful and at times heartrending poems.

TREASURES OF THE LIVERY COMPANY HALLS

POLICE MUSEUM SPECIAL EVENT Thursday 8 March, 6-8pm ©Jill Finch

Tuesday 27 February, 2-3.30pm

Wednesday 7 March, 2-3pm

FINDING FRED: THE STORY OF CITY OF LONDON POLICE’S BLITZ PHOTOGRAPHER

£7 plus booking fee. Includes wine reception.

©Paul Jagger both images:

The Cross and Tibbs Collection provides a unique photographic record of WWII bomb damage inflicted on the City. This talk by Rebecca Walker looks at the life and times of one of the Collection’s photographers – Frederick Tibbs, a City of London police officer – and of the City he patrolled from the Roaring Twenties through to World War.

The City of London is home to no fewer than forty Livery Company Halls, almost as many as existed immediately prior to the Great Fire of London. Many of the Halls succumbed to the fire, others to the Blitz, and several to the property developer, but they all contain a wealth of treasures of art, furnishing, sculpture, silverware and stained glass. Join Paul Jagger to sample some of this visually sumptuous feast, accompanied by stories of the Livery Companies and their many customs and ceremonies.

©Mary Pritchard

Thursday 22 March, 2-3pm

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH STATE LOTTERIES 1694-1826

EVENTS

Thursday 15 March, 6-8pm

AS GOOD AS GOLD

Monday 19 March, 2-3pm

SOCIAL HISTORY IN THE STOCK EXCHANGE COLLECTION: A VOLUNTEER’S DISCOVERIES Linda Taylor shares some of her fascinating finds whilst working with our collection of Stock Exchange Annual Reports and her experience of being a Guildhall Library volunteer. The reports (1880-1965) give valuable information about the effects of war on business and how business deals with the unexpected and unusual. Everything from the valuing of zoo animals to a shocking ‘new’ idea that smoking may be bad for your health!

With palaces and embassies, mansions and crowded tower blocks, Kensington is not so much a village as a city in miniature. Offering more variety than almost any other area of London, it will be the focus of more than one talk and walk this year. Join Pete Smith to find out more.

Thursday 22 March, 6-8pm

UNDER THE MICROSCOPE: EXHIBITION LAUNCH EVENT

Join Mary Pritchard for an exclusive view of her new exhibition, with artwork inspired by her mother Olive’s 1930s brass microscope and scientific research at Trinity College Dublin.

Mary will provide an introduction to the exhibition, followed by a short theatrical piece by Peter Cutts, bringing alive the context of Olive’s world, from her social standing in Dublin society to the attitude towards women studying at Trinity College Dublin in the 1930s.

Peter Cutts is an actor and writer who has worked in education and community settings for many years.

£7 plus booking fee. Includes wine reception.

Free for Guildhall Library Friends

EXHIBITION EVENT

£7 plus booking fee. Includes wine reception.

LONDON’S VILLAGES: KENSINGTON

©Judith Grant

The story of Gold – its significance and symbolism – within the history of art. Gold the colour of the sun; of divinity; of status; of love. Creations ancient and contemporary, sacred and profane – all that glitters is certainly gold… Join Alexandra Epps to learn more.

Tuesday 20 March, 2-3pm

The accession of William III to the throne involved Britain in European wars on a scale hitherto unknown, forcing the country to experiment with new ways of raising money, of which the foundation of the Bank of England and the National Debt remain today. At the same time the Government started lotteries, originally as a marketing tool for the sale of government stock but by the middle of the 18th century to provide the State with an annual profit. The need to attract the population at large involved developments in printing, advertising and distribution, aspects traced in this talk by Judith Grant (illustrations of a private collection).

©Pete Smith

EVENTS

WALK Saturday 24 March, 11am-12.30pm

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.

KENSINGTON TO NOTTING HILL

Meet Pete Smith by the exit from Kensington High Street Underground Station for an introduction to the diversity of the Royal Borough: a walk that moves from a shopping mecca and a royal residence to the fringes of ‘The Belly’ (Portobello Road to you and me).

£8, pay on the day, no booking required

WORKSHOP Wednesday 28 March, 2-3pm

Richard ‘Dick’ Whittington (c. 1350-1423) is without question the most famous Lord Mayor of London. His fame extends beyond his life as a medieval merchant into myth, children’s literature and pantomime. Join London history specialist Professor Tracey Hill on a walking tour that throws new light onto Whittington’s life and times. The walk visits the areas where Whittington lived and worked, and locations that still bear evidence of the generous bequests he left to the City.

We will then return to Guildhall Library –founded in the early fifteenth century under the terms of Whittington’s will – to view a display of some rare books about Whittington that show how the myth developed. We may even develop some theories about where the cat came from!

Meet at Guildhall Library at 3pm. £7 plus booking fee.

Includes wine reception

LONDON IN FOUR SUITS: CLUBS

According to Pete Smith, London is a gregarious city. Join him to examine this claim as he takes you on a one-hour virtual tour that embraces learned societies, gambling and drinking clubs, meeting places catering for some very odd tastes, and even a club for hen-pecked husbands not allowed to sing in the bath.

WORKSHOP Wednesday 11 April, 2-3pm

DICK WHITTINGTON AND HIS CAT

The rags-to-riches story of a poor boy coming to London and making his fortune, with a little help from a feline friend, is a familiar tale. Join Assistant Librarian Ann Martin to look at how the tale has been passed down generations of adults and children through books, ballads, puzzles and pantomime programmes in Guildhall Library’s collections.

Guildhall Library Friends Exclusive Event Thursday 12 April, 2-3pm

UNDER THE MICROSCOPE: MEET THE ARTIST

This workshop will be based on the exhibition ‘Under the Microscope’, focusing on Mary Pritchard’s mother’s early life as a scientist in Trinity College Dublin in the 1930s.

Join Mary to handle the historical archive of letters, albums, photos and biological slides and try out an old microscope, while hearing first-hand the personal stories and historical context behind the items in the exhibition.

©Mary Pritchard

This workshop by Assistant Librarian Melanie Strong will cover online sources for family history and their strengths and weaknesses. It will look at the 1939 register and searching the census by street on Find My Past, Apprentice registers on London Roll, free BDM and free Census websites, and what records are covered on family search including free family tree hosting.

WHITTINGTON, THE MAN AND THE MYTH

Tuesday 10 April, 2-3pm

EXHIBITION EVENT

BEYOND ANCESTRY – OTHER DIGITAL SOURCES FOR FAMILY HISTORY

WALK Wednesday 4 April, 3-6.30pm

GUILDHALL LIBRARY

HISTORY AND TREASURES OF GUILDHALL LIBRARY

FRIENDS

Thursday 29 March, 2-3.30pm

Thursday 26 April, 6-8pm

TO KILL A KING

PICCADILLY AND ST JAMES’S

Meet Pete Smith just inside the entrance to Green Park next to the Ritz Hotel (nearest station Green Park). Exploring both sides of Collage Record Piccadilly, No: 310309 we shall discover: some of Title: Green ParkLondon’s finest and most selective gentlemen’s famous food Description: Green Park: Generalclubs; view of a basin store founded on the sale of secondhand candles; and a fashionable shopping arcade where you are not allowed to carry a parcel! ©Simon Elliott

EVENTS Thursday 12 April, 6-8pm

WALK Saturday 14 April, 11am-12.30pm

SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS IN SCOTLAND: THE NORTHERN CAMPAIGNS OF THE FIRST HAMMER OF THE SCOTS

Septimius Severus was one of the great warrior Emperors. He hacked his way to power in AD 193 and fought off all challengers before embarking on successful wars of conquest in the east and Africa.

Yet Severus, born in the blistering heat of a North African summer to one of the richest families in the Empire, died in the freezing cold of a Yorkshire winter in February AD 211 in the wild west of the Roman Empire. In his new book Simon Elliott tells this story for the first time, of one of the largest military campaigns to take place in Britain.

£7 plus booking fee. Includes wine reception.

Tuesday 24 April, 2-3.30pm

HISTORY AND TREASURES OF GUILDHALL LIBRARY

Artist: Arnald, George Join our librarians

to learn about the tour the building (including behind Accession No.: Westminster EH 3 02633 the scenes) and view some of the Date of Execution: 1808 library’s treasures.

At 2pm, on Tuesday 30 January 1649, Charles I stepped onto a wooden scaffold outside Whitehall’s Banqueting House. He was wearing two shirts to stop him shivering in the cold. The last thing he wanted was for the gathering crowds to mistake it for fear. In one stroke of the executioner’s axe, his head left his body. An anointed king had been executed as a traitor. From imprisonment and trial to execution and legacy, join historian Rebecca Rideal as she unravels one of the most important events in British history – the regicide of Charles I.

Cost info: £7 plus booking fee.

Includes wine reception.

history of Guildhall Library, Catalogue No: SC_PZ_WE_01_2958

Medium: coloured engraving

£8, pay on the day, no booking required

POLICE MUSEUM SPECIAL EVENT Friday 20 April, 1-1.30pm

SUFFRAGETTE BOMBS AND THE CITY’S LATER HISTORY OF TERRORISM

Join Rebecca Walker for a short talk and insights into two of the most unusual objects in the City of London Police collection: homemade suffragette bombs found in key locations in the City in 1913. Discover how the police in the square mile has dealt with the evolving nature of terrorism across the ages, and what this means today.

Limited places

Monday 30 April, 2-3pm

ELECTRONIC RESOURCES

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.

©Mary Pritchard

GUILDHALL LIBRARY

FRIENDS

Become a Friend of Guildhall Library

EXHIBITIONS

Join the Guildhall Library Friends scheme, which supports conservation and access to the Library’s unique collections. Guildhall Library’s printed books collection comprises over 200,000 titles dating from the 15th to the 21st centuries. Become one of the first Guildhall Library Friends, support our work and enjoy a range of benefits.

15 January – 9 March

BOOKS: USED AND ABUSED

A book is a book is a box, bible, bling, expanding file, notepad, inadvertent container… Used and abused, the older a book is, the greater the chance that someone has altered its material content in an unusual or thoughtful way. See how and why books are customised, adorned, despoiled and disguised. Building on last year’s display, this exhibition will feature new examples of weird and wonderful books from Guildhall Library’s collections, each with its own fascinating story to tell.

The Friends scheme offers

l Priority booking for all events l Exclusive Guildhall Library Friends’ lectures and tours lF ree invitations to all Guildhall Library exhibition launches l 20% discount in the Guildhall Library and City of London Police Museum shop l A free entry ticket to Tower Bridge Exhibition l Free entry to Monument l Half price admission to Keats House

Friends Membership for one year costs: 19 March – 16 May

UNDER THE MICROSCOPE

Artist Mary Prichard has created a homage to her mother Olive, inspired by her mother’s 1930s brass microscope and her scientific research at Trinity College Dublin. This exhibition brings together a variety of media and archival material; biological slides, photographs, scientific papers, letters and stories to reveal an art installation of the personal history of Olive the scientist, including a mock-up of her laboratory. View huge posters of insects and alternative artwork by Mary, all derived from or inspired

by Olive’s scientific journey.

Individual £35

Dual £60 Dual membership is two people living in the same household.

WORKSHOP Wednesday 11 April, 2-3pm

DICK WHITTINGTON AND HIS CAT

The rags-to-riches story of a poor boy coming to London and making his fortune, with a little help from a feline friend, is a familiar tale. Join Assistant Librarian Ann Martin to look at how the tale has been passed down generations of adults and children through books, ballads, puzzles and pantomime programmes in Guildhall Library’s collections.

Guildhall Library Friends Exclusive Event How to become a Friend of Guildhall Library?

There are three easy ways to join: Phone us on 020 7332 1871/1869 Email us your contact details at ghlevents@cityoflondon.gov.uk Talk to us in Guildhall Library, please ask at the Enquiry Desk.

GUILDHALL EVENTS

LIBRARY AND EXHIBITIONS The Library of London History

CITY OF LONDON POLICE MUSEUM AT GUILDHALL

A fascinating collection charting the development of the City of London Police force from its earliest days through the intrigue of the Victorian era to modern policing and current challenges like cybercrime and fraud.

www.cityoflondon.police.uk/about-us/history/museum Guildhall Library and Police Museum 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 The library is closed on Bank Holiday weekends.

Please note exhibitions are inaccessible during afternoon talks.

All images © City of London unless indicated. Robin cover image ©Simon Wills

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 guildhall.library@cityoflondon.gov.uk www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/guildhalllibrary

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