M A RT I N R A N D A L L T R AV E L A RT • A R C H I T E C T U R E • WA L K I N G • H I S TORY • M U S I C • L I T E R AT U R E
LONDON DAYS 2020
Newly-launched: London Choral Day – Kensington & Knightsbridge | Painting in Britain Updated list of 2020 itineraries
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LONDON DAYS ‘London, thou art the flower of cities all’ – William Dunbar London Days are all-inclusive, non-residential tours opening doors in the capital to its wonderful art, architecture and history. They are led by carefully-chosen experts who enthuse, interpret and inspire, bringing to life each specialist theme. Radio guides enable lecturers to talk in a normal conversational voice while participants can hear without difficulty whether in a museum or on a main road.
The itinerary is detailed and meticulously planned with special arrangements and privileged access significant features. Refreshments and lunches are included and planned in appropriate settings for sustenance, conversation and reflection. These are active, fulfilling days, often with a lot of walking and standing. Travel is mainly by Underground, sometimes taxi, occasionally by private coach or bus.
For an insight into the London Days experience, view our video of The London Backstreet Walk at martinrandall.com/london-days
CONTENTS GALLERY & MUSEUM
MUSIC
The Italian Renaissance............................. 4 Mother, Maiden, Mistress.......................... 4 Painting in Britain...................................... 4 Art and Artefacts of Antiquity.................. 5 Ancient Egypt at the British Museum..... 5 Venetian Art in London............................ 6 Ancient Greece........................................... 6
London Organs Day................................... 8 London Choral Day................................... 9
ARCHITECTURE Hampstead in the 1930s............................ 7 John Nash.................................................... 7
HISTORY London’s Underground Railway............. 10 Great Railway Termini............................. 10 Roman London Walk............................... 11 The Tudors................................................. 11
WALKING
London’s Top Ten...................................... 12 Royal Parks Walk...................................... 13 The London Squares Walk...................... 13
2020 PROGRAMME London Days listed by date..................... 14
BOOKING, VOUCHERS, UPDATES Making a booking.................................... 15 Gift vouchers............................................. 15 London Days e-bulletin........................... 15
The London Backstreet Walk.................. 12
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LONDON DAYS | GALLERY & MUSEUM
The Italian Renaissance at the National Gallery Thursday 5 March 2020 (lg 119) Lecturer: Dr Michael Douglas-Scott Thursday 29 October 2020 (lg 546) Lecturer: Dr Antonia Whitley London’s National Gallery possesses the finest collection of Italian Renaissance paintings outside Italy. Unlike most other national collections in Europe, it was formed (over nearly 200 years) by connoisseurs and art historians rather than princes and nobles whose less discerning eyes allowed the admission of a proportion of second- and third-raters. There’s no dross on show in Trafalgar Square.
There are four sessions in the galleries of approximately an hour each. While most paintings commissioned then were of a religious nature, the call for portraits and mythologies speak of the burgeoning humanistic interests of patrons. Meaning, context, scale and innovation and what it was that marked out images by the great masters in this period will all be considered. Between the sessions there are leisurely adjournments for refreshments. With no more than fourteen in the group, radio guides to eliminate problems of audibility, and the presence of an MRT staffer to oversee the arrangements, this should be a highly agreeable and efficacious
way to enhance your knowledge and appreciation of Renaissance painting.
and Morisot to a wide range of 20th and 21st century women artists from Bell, to Wylie and Emin. These works will prompt questions and debate around feminism and art. Why have women historically been excluded from studying and practising as artists? Why has art history favoured the contributions of men, often suppressing the history of women’s work? Why are nude images of women in the gallery and public arenas repeatedly normalised?
acceptance into the art establishment until late into the 19th century. The afternoon is spent at Tate Britain where, after lunch at the Rex Whistler restaurant, the important and often overlooked contributions of women artists in Britain are assessed, ultimately focusing on late 20th century women artists such as Chadwick, Hiller, Lucas and many others represented in the Tate’s collection.
Start: 10.15am, National Gallery. Finish: 5.15pm, National Gallery. Price: £205. This includes lunch, midmorning and mid-afternoon refreshments. Group size: maximum 14 participants. Combine the October day with: Venetian Art in London, 30 October 2020 or Venice: Pageantry & Piety, 2-7 November 2020.
Mother, Maiden, Mistress Women in Art Thursday 2 April 2020 (lg 152) Lecturer: Dr Catherine McCormack Whether through images of Eve,Venus and the Virgin Mary, or as mother, maiden and mistress, women have been framed throughout centuries of art history into certain archetypes that are so embedded in our cultural consciousness we often fail to recognise fully their influence. Over the course of this day we will study a number of archetypes of women and femininity in images made by artists ranging from Botticelli to Titian, Velázquez to Gainsborough. Also considered will be work by women artists ranging from Gentileschi, Vigée Le Brun
The first half of the day at the National Gallery considers the historical depiction of women in religious, mythological and history paintings and portraits as well as the way in which women were held back from
Start: 10.20am, at the National Gallery. Finish: c. 5.10pm, at Tate Britain. Price: £215. This includes lunch, refreshments, and one taxi journey. Group size: maximum 14 participants.
Painting in Britain From Hogarth to Turner Tuesday 21 April 2020 (lg 161) Lecturer: Patrick Bade The Reformation dealt a deadly blow to the visual arts in Britain by removing ecclesiastical patronage and severing access to sources of new artistic trends in continental Europe. The aristocracy avidly collected the work of dead foreign artists but failed to nurture living British artists. During the early eighteenth century debate abounded around the relationship between British artists and their contemporaries and forerunners across the Channel. Hogarth represented truculent insularity, while Reynolds stood for a stance of patrician internationalism and a hope that influence could flow in both directions. However, both artists were united in their longing to establish a native school of painting that could rival the great Continental schools. 4
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They succeeded, and between 1730 and 1850 English painting was unsurpassed in its richness and diversity with a list of great names that includes Stubbs, Joseph Wright of Derby, Blake, Constable and Turner, as well as the Scottish contingent of Allan Ramsay and Henry Raeburn or the Irish James Barry and the Welsh Richard Wilson. Stylistically, the day moves from the Rococo, through NeoClassicism to Romanticism. The day’s four sessions, three at Tate Britain and one at the National Gallery, offer a survey and exploration of this fascinating and rewarding period of British painting. Start: 10.20am, at the National Gallery. Finish: c. 5.30pm, at Tate Britain. Price: £215. This includes lunch, refreshments and one taxi journey. Group size: maximum 14 participants.
LONDON DAYS | GALLERY & MUSEUM
Art and Artefacts of Antiquity at the British Museum Wednesday 3 June 2020 (lg 239) Lecturer: Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones Since its founding in 1753, the British Museum has been world-renowned for its collection of antiquities. As early as the 1840s, the museum was benefiting from the archaeological excavations taking place in Iraq at ancient sites such as Nineveh and Nimrud; the 1850s saw the creation of the Assyrian sculpture galleries which still form a central part of the museum’s collection. Similarly, the magnificent Egyptian antiquities were put on public display by the 1860s and their growth in popularity exploded in the 1920s, following Howard Carter’s discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun. The works of Classical antiquity, including the controversial Parthenon frieze (the Elgin Marbles), number some 100,000 objects, mostly ranging from the Bronze Age (about 3200bc) to the establishment of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire in the reign of the Constantine I, ad313. Exploring the galleries of the British Museum is not only a joy in itself, but is one of the best ways to develop a sense of the ancient past. This illuminating and enlightening day will use the art and artefacts of the museum’s rich collections to create a picture of life lived many millennia ago. Objects, it will be argued, are good to think with. Considering artefacts in all their sensuous and cognitive complexity and with all the resources of art history, this
tour presents artefact studies as a productive and vital counterpart to visual studies. By examining key works from across ancient Europe, the Near East, North Africa, and Eurasia, it is possible to discover how ancient civilisations interacted, borrowed and shared knowledge, and promoted their own identities.
Start: 10.15am, British Museum. Finish: c. 5.15pm, British Museum. Price: £210. This includes lunch and morning and afternoon refreshments at the Great Court Restaurant. Group size: maximum 14 participants.
Ancient Egypt at the British Museum Belief and society Friday 2 October 2020 (lg 451) Lecturer: Lucia Gahlin Ancient Egypt is perhaps best known for its mummies and pharaonic splendour, its monumental architecture and colossal statuary. One of the world’s most important collections of these antiquities is housed in London, at the British Museum. Its display of pharaonic might is second to none – Ramesses II casts his eyes downwards, a gaze which inspired Shelley’s ‘Ozymandias’. The tours of the Egyptian galleries during this lateafternoon visit focus on the beliefs and lives of the ordinary people. The itinerary takes advantage of the lesscrowded Friday ‘late’ at the British Museum and starts by exploring the formation of the Egyptian state around 3100 BC, and the changes this brought to the ancient people living in the Nile Valley. The material culture of this early period in Egypt’s history helps us understand the cultural, technological
and political developments which changed Egypt forever; the social history of the Ancient Egyptian people, the transition from chiefdoms to a country united under one ruler. Time is spent in the Egyptian Sculpture Gallery, to wander between the statues of pharaohs and gods. Here is a treasure-trove of evidence for private religion and daily life, lesser-known aspects of the ancient Egyptian civilisation. And in the Nebamun gallery, fragments of painted plaster from the tomb of the 15th Century bc temple accountant, as fine as any known examples of ancient Egyptian art, are found displayed alongside an array of objects of daily use. Art and artifacts complement each other to create the fullest picture of ancient Egyptian society.
Price: £205. This includes afternoon refreshments, a light supper (one-course with wine) and a donation to the museum. Group size: maximum 14 participants.
Sessions are interspersed with refreshments in the Great Court restaurant.
‘A fascinating tour with an enthusiastic and approachable lecturer. Her detailed knowledge of the lives of ordinary Ancient Egyptians brought them to life in the context of the wider aspects of Ancient Egypt and the development of their culture. An excellent day.’
Start: 3.15pm at the British Museum.
a participant on Ancient Egypt.
Finish: c. 8.15pm at the British Museum. +44 (0)20 8742 3355 | info@martinrandall.co.uk | www.martinrandall.com/london-days
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LONDON DAYS | GALLERY & MUSEUM
Venetian Art in London Colour, light and canals and nobility. In the eighteenth century when Venice’s mercantile empire was in decline the city experienced a second great flourishing of art which was fluent and elegant and full of colour and light. Artists such as Sebastiano Ricci and Giambattista Tiepolo were international, travelling throughout Europe and much in demand. These artists looked back at Venice’s great past while their contemporary the great topographical artist Canaletto provided pictorial records of the city for its visitors. The National Gallery has a superb collection of Venetian art, both Renaissance and eighteenth century, which is explored during the four sessions here. Start: 10.15am, National Gallery.
Friday 30 October 2020 (lg 547) Lecturer: Lucy Whitaker From the eleventh century Venice developed into a wealthy trading empire with Byzantium and the rest of Europe, its unique position made it the gateway between western Europe and the East. The end of the fifteenth century and the sixteenth century saw great achievements in architecture, sculpture and painting. Trading links with the East meant that Venetian artists could obtain the finest pigments for oil paint and it was in Venice that
artists developed the technique of painting in oils. They became famous for their skill in creating illusionistic scenes in rich colours, with an awareness of light affected by the continuously changing effects of large skies and the ever-moving water. The Venetian Republic was proud of its maritime prowess and independence and its history and system of government profoundly influenced Venetian art. The Bellini family, Titian, Jacopo Tintoretto and Paolo Veronese fulfilled commissions for the State, the Church
Finish: c.5.20pm, National Gallery. Price: £205. This includes a donation to the gallery, mid-morning refreshments, midafternoon refreshments and lunch. Fitness: There is a lot of standing in galleries during the course of the day. Group size: maximum 14 participants. Combine with: Venice: Pageantry & Piety, 2–7 November 2020.
Ancient Greece at the British Museum Thursday 3 December 2020 (lg 602) Lecturer: Professor Antony Spawforth A product of the Renaissance and of the Enlightenment, it is appropriate that the British Museum should be housed in a building modelled on Ancient Greek architecture – indeed, it is the grandest example of the Greek Revival in the country. It is equally appropriate that it houses one of the greatest collections of Greek art and artefacts outside Greece, given that the Classical world was the first and for long the primary object of antiquarian study and literary exegesis in Europe. It is the case that Britain had a special if controversial role in the creation of modern Greece. The exceptionally wide range of its holdings enables the day to begin two millennia before the Classical period and to finish with Roman copies of Greek sculpture made hundreds of years after the originals. The day consists of four sessions in the galleries of approximately 6
an hour each, with relatively leisurely refreshment breaks.
Start: 10.20am, British Museum.
The first session looks at Minoan and Mycenaean Greece, and at the Geometric and Archaic periods which saw Greek civilisation emerge to greatness again after the mysterious extinction of the earlier civilisations. The second session is largely devoted to the peerless sculptures from the Parthenon in Athens, the so-called Elgin Marbles, famously – infamously – the highlight of the collection, and among the most fascinating and beautiful creations in western art.
Price: £205. Includes lunch and refreshments at the Great Court Restaurant.
Lunch is at the Great Court restaurant, after which there is a little back-tracking to look at the development of pottery from the Archaic to the Classical periods, almost the only evidence of the glories of Greek painting that remains. Finally comes the Hellenistic period, Alexander the Great and after, especially the remarkable monuments from Lycia, the Nereid Monument and the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus.
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Finish: by 5.15pm.
Group size: maximum 14 participants.
‘I cannot fault the itinerary. We were steered along a pathway from earliest Greece to the Romans, using carefully selected exhibits to illustrate each historical period.’ a participant on Ancient Greece.
LONDON DAYS | ARCHITECTURE
Hampstead in the 1930s A walking tour and visits
As the abundance of wall plaques in the area demonstrates, visual artists have been drawn to the physical and cultural attractions of Hampstead since the late eighteenth century. This London day, however, concentrates on artistic life in Hampstead in the 1930s, the period in which it occupied a unique place in the story of British art and architecture. This was in large measure due to the number of talented émigrés from Nazi-dominated Europe who found refuge here, and the British individuals who welcomed and worked alongside them. A private view of selected items from the era at Hampstead museum’s collection at Burgh House, and an introductory lecture, set the scene. It was during the 1930s that such residents as Paul Nash, Roland Penrose and Henry Moore made the area the hub of avantgarde activities in the UK. Both the abstract and surrealist camps were well represented and modernist architects Wells Coates and Maxwell Fry also lived here during this period. A walk through Frognal is testament to their influence and work, and there is a visit to Hungarian-born Erno Goldfinger’s pioneering home at nearby 2 Willow Road.
By special arrangement, we visit the former garage of the Isokon building in Lawn Road which has been converted into a small gallery devoted to the colourful history of these flats whose tenants included Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer, as well as Agatha Christie and a significant number of Communist spies. The Mall Studios were home to what Herbert Read described as a ‘gentle nest of artists’, among them Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson. For a brief but significant spell, Piet Mondrian lived just around the corner.
Image: ©Isokon Building, Hampstead, London
Wednesday 27 May 2020 (lg 234) Lecturer: Monica Bohm-Duchen
The day is led by lecturer, writer and curator specialising in 20th century art, Monica Bohm-Duchen who was born in Hampstead and has lived there most of her life. Start: 10.00am at Hampstead Underground Station. Finish: c. 5.30pm in central Hampstead just a short walk from Hampstead Underground Station. Price: £220. This includes morning and afternoon refreshments, lunch, admission charges and donations, one taxi journey.
‘Fascinating and enjoyable. Particularly seeing the penthouse flat of the Isokon.’ a participant on Hampstead in the 1930s.
Fitness: there is a fair amount of walking on steep streets and you are on your feet most of the day at the sites visited. Group size: maximum 14 participants.
John Nash The man who transformed London Monday 21 September 2020 (lg 415) Lecturer: Dr Geoffrey Tyack While London at the beginning of the 19th century was the largest and most prosperous city in the world, it fell far behind many other capitals in the magnificence of its government buildings and the grandeur of its street layout. This was a direct outcome of the limits put on British monarchical authority – and spending power – after the Glorious Revolution, and the concomitant resistance to central authority of any kind. It is no coincidence that the monarch most widely despised by his subjects since 1688 was the one who encouraged the greatest episode of town planning and large-scale beautification in the history of London, George IV, Regent from 1811 – the year the leases of Regent’s Park fell in. But the person most responsible for the park’s incomparable architectural rim, and for the great sequence of thoroughfares leading south to Whitehall, was John Nash. Nash’s star is now in the ascendant again, but for much of the last two hundred years his detractors predominated, with mutterings
about his shady dealings as a developer, his (or rather his wife’s) improper relationship with his royal patron, his sloppiness as a designer and the shoddiness of his stucco-wrapped buildings. As an architect he was sometimes somewhat broad-brush, but he was master of effects both grand and picturesque. Simply turning his Regent Street masterplan into reality in only ten years was an extraordinary achievement. Nearly all his surviving buildings, urban improvements and park landscaping in central London are seen on this day, beginning with Regent’s Park and finishing with his Buckingham palace interiors, unquestionably the most regal in the realm. Dr Tyack is an architectural historian whose book John Nash: Architect of the Picturesque was published in 2013. Start: 9.30am, Camden Town Underground Station. Finish: c. 5.45pm, Buckingham Palace. Price: £205. This includes lunch, refreshments, one bus journey, an admission charge and a donation.
The visit to Buckingham Palace is by no means exclusive and clients should be warned that access requires some queuing and that the rooms will be busy. Fitness: this is a full day walking and participants need to be able to cope with considerable time on foot, and with catching a busy London bus. Group size: maximum 16 participants.
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LONDON DAYS | MUSIC
London Organs Day In the City and West End Friday 15 May 2020 (lg 881) The London Organs Day will be an enthralling experience for both pipe-organ devotees and for the merely interested. London has an outstanding wealth of historic and modern instruments – no other city in the world comes close – and five very fine examples will be heard today, played by four excellent organists. At all four venues you hear music ideally suited to the organ in that particular church and, by the end of the day, will have enjoyed a cross section of the repertoire which is the widest of any instrument, stretching back to medieval times and continuously augmented by today’s composers. Each recital will be preceded by a discussion with the church’s organist, teasing out what is special about the instruments and providing background to the music to be played. The interviewer throughout will be Simon Williams, deputy director of the Royal College of Organists and director of music at St George’s Hanover Square, Handel’s parish church. All the organs are located in historic churches of great architectural and historical interest. It is not by coincidence that our selection is clustered around the Central Line: the day involves one journey by Tube, but otherwise progress between recitals and lunch will be on foot, a total distance of one and a half miles spread over seven short walks.
The venues St Margaret Lothbury Organist: Richard Townend Tucked behind the Bank of England, St Margaret Lothbury was rebuilt after the Great Fire under the direction of Christopher Wren. Relatively unscathed during the Blitz, it has one of the most fully furnished church interiors of the era, including carvings by Grinling Gibbons; many pieces found a home here during the wave of church demolitions in the 19th century. Built by George England in 1801, the organ is an exceptional survival of a classical instrument. Restored in 1984, it retains much of its original pipe work. It has two manuals and pedals and, with 21 speaking stops is the smallest of the four instruments. St Lawrence Jewry Organist: Catherine Ennis One of the most expensive of Wren’s City churches, a ‘sumptuous barn’, St Lawrence is now the official Church of the Corporation of London. Damaged in 1940 and restored in 1957, it has a spectacular white and gold interior. The main organ was built in 2001 by Johannes Klais Orgelbau of Bonn and has three manuals and pedals with 39 stops. A much smaller one in the Commonwealth Chapel organ, also by Klais, has one manual and pedals with six stops. 8
All Saints Margaret Street Organist: Jeremiah Stephenson
The interviewer
Historically and artistically, All Saints Margaret Street is arguably the most important Gothic Revival church in central London. Designed in 1850 by William Butterfield, the red and black brick exterior shelters an interior of unsurpassed richness.
Simon Williams. Organist and Director of Music at St George’s, Hanover Square, since 2000. He was closely involved with the commissioning of the church’s organ which was installed in 2012. He combines his position at St George’s with those of Director for the Royal College of Organists’ East, South and South West region, and Music Director of Harrow Choral Society. He is also an RCO Accredited Teacher.
The organ is a superb four-manual Harrison and Harrison instrument with 66 speaking stops, built in 1910 (restored it 2003). It retains the best of the pipe work of its predecessor, the considerably smaller Hill organ. Though as big as those found in most cathedrals, it sounds intimate when played quietly and monumental when loud. St George’s Hanover Square Organist: Simon Williams St George’s is the parish church of Mayfair, built 1721–24 to the designs of John James. The classical front with six great Corinthian columns was innovatory and highly influential, and the Grinling Gibbons reredos frames a ‘Last Supper’ by William Kent. The interior was modified in 1894 under the direction of Sir Arthur Blomfield and was splendidly refurbished in 2010. George Frideric Handel was a regular worshipper at St George’s, which is home to the annual London Handel Festival.
Practicalities Start: 10.30am, St Margaret Lothbury. Finish: c. 5.15pm, St George’s Hanover Square. Fitness: there are walks at a leisurely pace of, at most 10 minutes, (waiting at pedestrian crossings included). Price: £215. This includes lunch and refreshments as well as exclusive admission to the four recitals. Audience size: maximum of 80 participants. Booking: you do not need to complete a booking form for this event. Please call us to book over the telephone, or book online at www.martinrandall.com.
Gerard Smith, nephew of Bernard Smith, built the first organ in 1725, but this was rebuilt several times – in 1761 by John Snetzler, and in 2012 by Richards, Fowkes & Co. of Ooltewah, Tennessee. This has its stylistic roots in the magnificent 17th and 18th century organs of North Germany and Holland, and has three manuals and pedals with 46 stops.
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Photographs ©Ben Ealovega.
LONDON DAYS | MUSIC
London Choral Day Kensington and Knightsbridge Friday 24 July 2020 (lg 317) Our London Choral Days put outstanding and exciting choral ensembles in some of the most beautiful buildings in the capital. They take the form of a day-long sequence of performances, talks, lunch and refreshments, the audience moving between the venues on foot. The days are conceived not as three discrete concerts but as an integrated, over arching musical experience in which the individual parts illuminate and enlarge upon what has gone before. Usually there is some connection between the venues and the music performed in them, which may be chronological – music of the same period as the building – or associational: a specific historical link between music and building. Kensington and Knightsbridge are two of London’s more affluent addresses. The area is an intriguing blend of grand residential properties and some of London’s best-known institutions. During the course of the day we are a stones throw from Imperial College, the Royal College of Music, the V&A, Natural History and Science museums and Harrods. An area known for its tranquil private squares, tree lined streets and handsome architecturally diverse churches.
The venues St Columba’s Church of Scotland It would be hard to find a group of London churches that are more different than the three we have selected for this Choral Day. We begin at St Columba in Pont Street; Scandinavian modernism with a touch of Byzantium in the service of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. It was built 1950–55, after the wartime destruction of its predecessor, to the designs of Sir Edward Maufe, architect of Guildford Cathedral. White without and white within, it is filled with light and far from dour. Siglo de Oro made its professional debut in 2014 at the Spitalfields Festival, of which the Financial Times said: ‘Siglo de Oro, under the assured direction of Patrick Allies, performed with vivacity and poise’. Since then, the group has given concerts at St John’s Smith Square, Stour Music and the Barber Institute, performed live on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune, and taken up invitations to give concerts in Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland and Malta. Brompton Oratory The contrast – liturgical, doctrinal, aesthetic – with the previous venue could hardly be greater. A startlingly persuasive piece of Baroque Italy in Knightsbridge, it has the full panoply of vast vaulted nave, capacious side chapels, high dome, polychromatic marble revetment and ecstatic sculptured saints (the 17th-century Apostles
Photographs: The London Oratory ©Charles Cole.
were made for Siena Cathedral in the 1690s). The Plymouth-bred, Dublin-based architect, Herbert Gribble, a Catholic convert, was chosen in open competition in 1878 and the church was largely completed in under 20 years. Founded in 1852, the Choir of The London Oratory is the country’s senior professional Catholic church choir, comprising singers from the leading concert choirs in London. The Director of Music, Patrick Russill, is also Head of Choral Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music. The choir presents a programme based on the Roman tradition of the 16th and early 17th centuries. Holy Trinity, Prince Consort Rd The final church of the day is serenely beautiful, and can be claimed in style to represent the swansong of the Victorian Gothic Revival. Holy Trinity was also G.F. Bodley’s last great work; he lived just long enough to see it completed before dying in 1907 (his monument is here), though outfitting continued for several more years. The carving of the reredos, choir stalls, pulpit and other furnishings is of supreme sensitivity, and the glass by Burlison & Grylls glows with rich autumnal hues.
Practicalities Start: 11.30am at St Columba’s Church of Scotland. Doors open at 11.10am. Finish: c. 6.50pm at Holy Trinity, Prince Consort Road. Walking: For those who do not choose the vehicular option, there are walks at a leisurely pace of, at most, 20 minutes (waiting at pedestrian crossings included). There is the option of signing up in advance for taxis to avoid the walks at a cost of £25 per person. Price: £225 (with taxis £25 as additional as specified above). This includes lunch and afternoon refreshments, as well as exclusive admission to the three concerts and the lecture. Lunch and refreshments: Lunch in good restaurants; the audience is split between several. Refreshments are served in the afternoon. Audience size: c. 100–160. Booking: you do not need to complete a booking form for this event. Please call us to book over the telephone, or book online at www.martinrandall.com.
Coupling powerful interpretations with path-breaking scholarship, Contrapunctus presents music of celebration from the Spanish Golden Age by composers including Francisco Guerrero, Tomás Luis de Victoria and Cristóbal de Morales. Since its foundation in 2010, the group has appeared in many prestigious music festivals including Martin Randall Travel’s Seville: A Festival of Spanish Music. The group is Vocal Consort in Residence at the University of Oxford.
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LONDON DAYS | HISTORY
London’s Underground Railway A history and appreciation of the Tube Wednesday 22 April 2020 (lg 159) Wednesday 16 September 2020 (lg 379) Lecturer: Andrew Martin Shanghai has more track, Paris and New York have more stations, but London has by a clear margin the oldest urban underground railway in the world: 2013 was its 150th anniversary. It is also by far the most complicated, having started messily as several independent and often competing enterprises; contrary to sensible practice, strategic planning by unitary municipal government came towards the end of the process, not in advance. Modern London was shaped by the Tube rather than vice versa. Motivation and management has been various: commercial and philanthropic, entrepreneurial and Keynesian, expansionist and defeatist. The first ‘cut and cover’ lines, in trenches under existing roads, were vigorously promoted by a socialistic solicitor. The ‘deep level’ tube lines
were pushed through by a maverick American, while the suburban extensions between the wars fulfilled the utopian ideals of a dour Yorkshireman who came bitterly to regret the urban sprawl they spawned. Now, after decades of relative neglect, investment and improvement are on an unprecedented scale. The day is led by Andrew Martin, journalist, novelist, historian and author of Underground Overground: a Passenger’s History of the Tube (2012). During the 1990s he was ‘Tube Talk’ columnist for the Evening Standard. He stresses that his approach will not be drily academic or technical but anecdotal and affectionate, highlighting the human stories, the architecture and design, the overlooked detail and the downright odd. Among the places and themes examined are the first ever stations, still in use and little changed; the even earlier Brunel tunnel under the Thames, mother of all modern tunnels, opened 1841; the subtle beauties of Leslie
Green’s tiled stations of the early 20th century and the revered modernist architecture of the 1930s; and the architectural bravura of the 1990s Jubilee Line Extension. The day is not all spent below ground, and by special arrangement there is a visit to London Transport’s historic headquarters at 55 Broadway. Start: 9.00am at Baker Street Station. Finish: c. 5.00pm at Southwark (a short walk to Waterloo station). Fitness: participants need to be able to cope with busy trains and a considerable time on foot; standing or walking. There are a lot of station steps as well as a flight of 100 which are steep and narrow within 55 Broadway. Price: £220. This includes all Tube travel, lunch and refreshments. Group size: maximum 15 participants.
‘Lucid and fascinating exposition of the railway termini and their surroundings. A real eye opener for me; I found myself taken back in time so that it felt as if I were really there.’ a participant on Great Railway Termini.
Great Railway Termini Paddington, King’s Cross and St Pancras stations Wednesday 16 September 2020 (lg 834) Lecturer: Dr Steven Brindle Two eyebrow-raising assertions: the railways were a Georgian invention, all the ingredients being in place before 1830; and the twentyfirst century is witnessing a golden age of rail travel. The first is indisputable fact, if surprising to contemplate; the second is likely to provoke an unprintable retort from many a daily commuter. However, few would quibble with a statement that the greatest achievements of railway architecture and engineering are Victorian. But seeing and appreciating magnificent stations such as those studied today is to a large extent possible because of enlightened intervention in the last ten or twenty years. The adaptation and upgrading of ageing infrastructure to meet modern requirements 10
has been a major achievement, but so has the restoration and cleaning of historic fabric. And the sensitive addition of new structures of the highest quality of design has been a triumph.
The contiguous Midland Grand Hotel by Sir George Gilbert Scott is perhaps the bestknown of all Victorian buildings.
Largely the creation of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Paddington is well preserved and in some ways the most appealing of London’s termini. King’s Cross has always been admired for the majesty of its unadorned functionality, but recent removal of twentieth-century clutter enables it to be better appreciated than for a century. And in 2012 the station acquired a magnificent new lattice steel foyer, the widest span in Europe apparently.
Finish: c. 4.45pm at St Pancras Station.
The 240 ft span of the St Pancras train shed far surpassed any previous structure in the world and its conversion for use as the Eurostar terminus, completed 2007, created one of the most exciting sets of public spaces in Europe.
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Start: 9.30am at Paddington Station. Price: £215. This includes morning and afternoon refreshments, lunch, one journey by underground and special arrangements. Group size: maximum 16 participants. Combine the day with: Isambard Kingdom Brunel, 17-22 September 2020.
LONDON DAYS | HISTORY
Roman London Walk Billingsgate, Mithraeum, Guildhall and Museum of London Monday 4 May 2020 (lg 194) Lecturer: Professor Simon Esmonde Cleary ‘Most renowned for the quantity of merchants and goods’, the Roman historian Tacitus’ evocation of London on the eve of its destruction by Boudicca in 60/61ad shows how commerce brought London into being for the first time in the Roman period. Premier port of Roman Britain it became the province’s chief administrative centre and largest city. The legacy of the Roman city remains despite over a millennium of later rebuilding; indeed, the commercial world of the modern City of London still lies largely within the Roman wall circuit. Excavations on bomb-sites after the Second World War and in advance of the prodigious redevelopments of the last forty years have transformed our knowledge of the Roman city and the lives and deaths of its people. The well-preserved section of the Roman walls at Tower Hill shows the importance of the city. Very unusually for a Roman city there was a fort in the area of Cripplegate and its amphitheatre lies under the Guildhall. Within the walls the large residential complex and baths at Billingsgate are testimony to Roman habits of life. Even more evocative of cosmopolitan Mediterranean culture is the Mithraeum, attesting the spread through the Roman world of a cult originally from Persia.
In addition, there are some of the astonishing wooden writing tablets from the earliest years of the Roman occupation uncovered during the construction of the new Bloomberg building. The Museum of London houses the outstanding collection of evidence for the development of the Roman city and its people, displaying not only mosaics, coins and tombstones, but also conveying how new scientific techniques are expanding our understanding of this important era in London’s evolution.
Start: 9.45am, Tower Hill tube station. Finish: c. 5.00pm, the Museum of London. Price: £215. This includes morning and afternoon refreshments, lunch, one special admisssion and donations. Fitness: the day is spent on foot, both standing and walking along busy and narrow pavements. The Billingsgate bathhouse is accessible only by staircase. Group size: maximum 16 participants. Combine the day with: Roman Southern Britain, 5–12 May 2020.
The Tudors Hampton Court, tombs & portraits Monday 22 June 2020 (lg 278) Lecturer: Dr Neil Younger Tudor architecture, culture and politics are studied through two of the finest buildings of the era, and Tudor people through the two best assemblies of images. The day begins at Westminster Abbey in the Henry VII Chapel, not only the most glorious ecclesiastical Tudor building but burial place of most of the Tudor monarchs. The theme of commemoration continues at the National Portrait Gallery, broadening to include courtiers. Hampton Court began as the country palace of Cardinal Wolsey, one of the richest and most powerful individuals in Europe, before being sequestered by Henry VIII. Partially rebuilt and extended for William and Mary, it nevertheless retains some outstanding 16thcentury interiors and works of art – great hall, chapel, private apartments, kitchens, tapestries and paintings.
The lecturer Dr Neil Younger is a specialist in Tudor politics, government and court culture. He is the author of War and Politics in the Elizabethan Counties and is currently working on a biography of the Elizabethan courtier Sir Christopher Hatton. Start: 9.25am, Westminster Abbey (west door). Finish: c. 6.30pm at Waterloo Station. Price: £225. This includes lunch, morning refreshments, admission charges and transport. Transport: taxis within London, return national rail between Waterloo Station and Hampton Court. Fitness: there are walks of up to 20 minutes between station and palace at Hampton Court, and a lot of standing in galleries and buildings. Group size: maximum 16 participants.
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LONDON DAYS | WALKING
The London Backstreet Walk From Hyde Park to The Tower
Thursday 14 May 2020 (lg 209) Lecturer: Martin Randall Thursday 25 June 2020 (lg 277) Lecturer: Sophie Campbell Tuesday 8 September 2020 (lg 362) Lecturer: Barnaby Rogerson
This walk is predicated on two beliefs. The first, platitudinous if rarely put to the test, is that the centre of London is not so large that people of ordinary fitness couldn’t walk everywhere. The second would perhaps be greeted in some quarters with scepticism: that one can traverse the capital from Hyde Park Corner to the Tower of London without walking along main roads for more than a couple of hundred yards in total.
Some special arrangements have been made to enter a few buildings en route. Champagne at the Savoy and lunch at Middle Temple are among the treats. But the main point of the day is to provide the satisfaction of accomplishing a unique and fascinating journey through the heart of the most vibrant, varied and fascinating city in Europe.
This is London seen from parks, gardens, alleys, backstreets and pedestrian zones. As the crow flies, it is exactly 3⅓ miles, but as avoiding traffic requires some circuitous deviations the distance walked is 8 or 9 miles.
Price: £215. This includes refreshments and lunch, admission charges and donations.
The route – which is far from obvious, as may be understood – is laced with delights and surprises. Many famous buildings are passed or glimpsed, but largely the interest lies in unexpected clusters of pre-20th-century architecture, picturesque vistas and intriguing alleys, patches of parkland and well-tended gardens, recent architectural behemoths and medieval street patterns.
Start: 9.00am, Hyde Park Corner, Wellington Arch. Finish: c. 5.40pm at Tower Hill Station.
Fitness: This is a serious hike, so please don’t attempt it unless you are able to walk at about 3 mph for at least an hour at a time and have the stamina for 9 miles (there are 4 refreshment breaks). The terrain is fairly flat but there are steps (one flight has 57). Stout shoes are advisable – but no trainers please: they are forbidden at the lunch venue. Group size: maximum 18 participants.
For an insight into the London Days experience, view our video of The London Backstreet Walk at martinrandall.com/london-days
London’s Top Ten A walking tour unveiling the famous sights Tuesday 19 May 2020 (lg 213) Lecturer: Sophie Campbell Most of our London Days focus on a particular and sometimes arcane theme, and usually they provide access to the inaccessible and show you little-visited gems. ‘Top Ten’ takes the opposite tack in that it leads you to London’s most famous tourist sights. What justifies this apparent volte-face in the MRT repertoire? The lecturer’s discourse. You will hear information and explanation rarely imparted by ordinary guides and guidebooks and hear analyses and interpretations, often reflecting new scholarship, which go beyond the expectations of the majority of tourists. Monuments that have been familiar since childhood become difficult to appraise with one’s usual sensory and critical faculties; 12
this tour aims to lift the veil and enable you to see and feel their deeper significance and beauty. By locating the sights in a broader architectural and historical context, and by placing them in the history of London and in the history of the nation, the lecturer will change the way you see these world-famous places. We’ve misled you slightly: the Day will include only eight or nine places, selected by the lecturer for that day from this list of ten: Tower of London, Tower Bridge, the Shard (from a distance), St Paul’s Cathedral (entered), Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey (entered), Houses of Parliament, Piccadilly Circus, Downing Street, Buckingham Palace – enhanced of course by our leader’s commentary.
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Start: 9.15am, Tower Hill Underground Station. Finish: 5.15pm Green Park Underground Station. Fitness: The day involves several short journeys by public transport but is otherwise spent on foot. There is a considerable amount of walking throughout the day, up to half a mile at a time. A good level of fitness is recommended. Price: £220. This includes morning and afternoon refreshments, lunch, two admission charges and transport. Group size: maximum 16 participants. Combine the day with: London Organs Day, 15 May 2020.
LONDON DAYS | WALKING
Royal Parks Walk London’s green lungs Monday 29 June 2020 (lg 281) Lecturer: Steven Desmond There are many royal parks in London. Their long history as royal preserves gradually admitting the public has left London with a distinguished legacy of public open spaces free from developer pressure and sprinkled with monuments. This walk will take us through three of these great parks to examine this ancient landscape of wood, water, turf and flowers, and dwell on some of its treasures. St James’s Park, virtually the front garden of Buckingham Palace, was made into something more than a place of public resort by Charles II although its present appearance owes most to the softening of its lines by John Nash in 1826. Regent’s Park began as confiscated monastic land. The Prince Regent turned it into the centrepiece of his prototype garden city, to which the public were first admitted in 1835. William Andrews Nesfield and his son Markham laid out the elaborate Avenue Gardens in the 1870s and the former botanic garden in the central circle was converted into the opulent rose garden in 1930. Hyde Park was detached from Westminster Abbey by Henry VIII in 1536, and was first opened to the public by Charles I. It became the venue of a series of spectacular events in the 19th century: the Trafalgar re-enactment on the Serpentine in 1814, when the model
French fleet was destroyed; the Crystal Palace of 1851, the world’s first modular exhibition centre and a sensational success; and the building of the Albert Memorial of 1872, a structure whose reputation has never stood higher. The royal enclave of Kensington Gardens, remodelled by Charles Bridgman in 1726, includes the charming sunken garden of the 1920s by the versatile Ernest Law. The day is led by Steven Desmond, Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Horticulture and specialist in the conservation of historic gardens.
Start: 10.00am, Westminster Underground Station. Finish: 4.30pm, Hyde Park. Price: £205. This includes lunch, morning and afternoon refreshments one Underground and one taxi journey. Fitness: The distance covered is c. 6 miles and you are on your feet for most of the day while looking and listening. Please don’t attempt it unless you are able to walk at about 3 mph for at least an hour at a time. Stout shoes are of course advisable. Group size: maximum 16 participants.
The London Squares Walk London’s greatest glory Saturday 12 September 2020 (lg 367) Lecturer: Martin Randall The basic form of London’s squares – rows of similar houses around a regular open space – is neither unique nor original to the city, but their sheer profusion is quite unparalleled elsewhere. Together with circuses, crescents and associated streets and mews, squares constitute London’s most distinctive and pleasing architectural characteristic. While the uniformity of the enclosing terraces provides much of the delight, equally engaging are the subtle differences between one house and its neighbours, or between one whole side and another. Many of the squares on this walk have ‘palace fronts’, terraces which were planned as if they were a single, very grand building, with architectural emphasis on the centre and ends. The squares selected for this walk are almost entirely intact and in an excellent state of
preservation – one amazing feature of the London square phenomenon generally. Most of the pioneers in Bloomsbury and the West End have been much rebuilt; this itinerary gives priority to completeness, condition and beauty, resulting in a study of the final, triumphant phase from very late Georgian to fairly late Victorian. During this period there was unprecedented variety and architectural quality, and economics and aesthetics aligned to achieve cityscape as fine as anywhere in the world.
Price: £205. This includes morning and afternoon refreshments and lunch. Fitness: The distance covered is c. 5½ miles, but you are on your feet for most of the day while looking and listening. Please don’t attempt it unless you are able to walk at about 3 mph for at least an hour at a time. Group size: maximum 16 participants.
Start: Wilton Place, 9.45am (nearest tube: Hyde Park Corner).
‘Martin Randall was brilliant! What a privilege to be taught about London architecture by such a passionate, well-informed and curious expert. I learnt so much. Thank you for a fascinating day!’
Finish: Gloucester Road Station, c. 5.30pm.
a participant on The London Squares Walk.
Not the least pleasing feature is the planting in the middle of the square, forming mature and well-tended landscaped gardens. The seemingly anachronistic system of ownership of tracts of London by aristocratic or charitable estates serves very well for upkeep.
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LONDON DAYS | BY DATE
MARCH 2020 5
REGISTER YOUR INTEREST
The Italian Renaissance (lg 119) Dr Michael Douglas-Scott............................ 4
2020 promises to be another eventful year for our programme of London Days, with the upcoming return of both our summer and advent choral days, as well as the new addition of our London Organs Day. An ‘Exhibition in Focus’ day is also planned for the autumn, offering a morning of lectures from curators and experts connected with one of the capitals major art exhibitions.
APRIL 2020 2 21 22
Mother, Maiden, Mistress (lg 152) Dr Catherine McCormack...........................4 Painting in Britain (lg 161) Patrick Bade............................................... 4 London’s Underground Railway (lg 159) Andrew Martin........................................... 10
New departures are released frequently throughout the year.
MAY 2020 4 14 15 19 27
Roman London Walk (lg 194) Professor Simon Esmonde Cleary.............. 11 The London Backstreet Walk (lg 209) Martin Randall........................................... 12 London Organs Day (lg 881) Simon Williams............................................. 8 London’s Top Ten (lg 213) Sophie Campbell......................................... 12 Hampstead in the 1930s (lg 234) Monica Bohm-Duchen................................. 7
JUNE 2020 3 22 25 29
Art and Artefacts of Antiquity (lg 239) Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones................... 5 The Tudors (lg 278) Dr Neil Younger.......................................... 11 The London Backstreet Walk (lg 277) Sophie Campbell......................................... 12 Royal Parks Walk (lg 281) Steven Desmond.......................................... 13
To register your interest for any of the below itineraries, please e-mail alerts@martinrandall.co.uk
Advent Choral Day, Winter 2020
Exhibition in Focus Day, 2020
The South Bank Walk
The London Gardens Walk
Interwar Interiors
Japanese Art in London
The Genius of Titian
Wellington in London
JULY 2020 24
London Choral Day (lg 317).................... 9
SEPTEMBER 2020 8 12 16 16 21
The London Backstreet Walk (lg 362) Barnaby Rogerson....................................... 12 The London Squares Walk (lg 367) Martin Randall........................................... 13 London’s Underground Railway (lg 379) Andrew Martin........................................... 10 Great Railway Termini (lg 834) Dr Steven Brindle........................................ 10 John Nash (lg 415) Dr Geoffrey Tyack......................................... 7
OCTOBER 2020 2 29 30
Ancient Egypt at the British Museum (lg 451) Lucia Gahlin.................................5 The Italian Renaissance (lg 546) Dr Antonia Whitley...................................... 4 Venetian Art in London (lg 547) Lucy Whitaker............................................... 6
DECEMBER 2020 3
14
Ancient Greece (lg 602) Professor Antony Spawforth......................... 6
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LONDON DAYS | BOOKING, GIFT VOUCHERS & UPDATES MAKING A BOOKING There is no booking form for London Days. You can book over the phone, or online at martinrandall.com/london-days If booking by phone, we will need to know: •
Name and date of the London Day(s) you are booking.
•
Your name(s), as you would like it/ them to appear to other participants.
•
Your address, telephone number and e-mail address (if you have one).
•
Any special dietary requirements and your contact details for the night prior to the day.
Payment. If by credit or debit card, give the card number, start date and expiry date (but for security not in an e-mail). There is no charge for using either a credit or debit card. Confirmation will be sent to you upon receipt of payment. Further details including joining instructions will be sent about two weeks before the day. Cancellation. We will return the full amount if you notify us 22 or more days before the event. We will retain 50% if cancellation is made within three weeks and 100% if within three days. Please put your cancellation in writing to info@ martinrandall.co.uk. We advise taking out insurance in case of cancellation and recommend that overseas clients are also covered for possible medical and repatriation costs.
London Days gift vouchers Since its inception in 2012 our London Days programme has opened doors and minds to the wonders of the capital, and has continued to grow in breadth and popularity. London Days gift vouchers offer the opportunity to share the experience of a cultural day out in the capital and make an ideal present. The gift voucher, a large postcard print depicting St Paul’s Cathedral, can be purchased to any value, or for a specified day. For further information or to purchase a London Days gift voucher, please contact us on: Martin Randall Travel: 020 8742 3355, or e-mail info@martinrandall.co.uk Martin Randall Australasia: 1300 55 95 95, or e-mail anz@martinrandall.com.au North America: 1 800 988 6168, or e-mail usa@martinrandall.com
SIGN UP TO OUR FORTNIGHTLY E-BULLETIN New departures are released frequently throughout the year. Be the first to hear about the latest range of London Days with our fortnightly e-mail updates. To sign up please e-mail info@martinrandall.co.uk, or call us on 020 8742 3355.
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Our tours build a vivid picture of America
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Our tours dedicated to American art and architecture feature the world’s finest galleries, lesser known masterpieces and some of the greatest buildings of the 20th century. With private views, and afterhours visits, our expert lecturers celebrate artistic ambition in America.
East Coast Galleries 29 April–12 May 2020 Frank Lloyd Wright 12–23 June 2020 | 11–22 September 2020 4–15 June 2021
‘ Beyond my expectations. Fulfilment of a dream come true. Could never have done it all by myself, especially the private house visits.’
Contact us: +44 (0)20 8742 3355 martinrandall.com ATOL 3622 | ABTA Y6050 | AITO 5085
West Coast Architecture 11–22 September 2020 Art in Texas 11–22 November 2020 New Orleans to Natchitoches 24 February–6 March 2021 Best Special Interest Holiday Company at the British Travel Awards: 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 & 2019.