M A RT I N R A N D A L L T R AV E L
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LONDON DAYS
‘Dear, damn’d, distracting town’ – Alexander Pope
Roses and Nightingales Persianate art at the V&A and British Museum See page 13 for full details
If you would like to receive our fortnightly e-mail updates on the latest range of London Days, please e-mail info@ martinrandall.co.uk, or call us on 020 8742 3355. Details and dates are released frequently throughout the year.
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.
London Days are all-inclusive, non-residential tours opening doors in the capital to its wonderful art, architecture and history.
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.
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.
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Contents – London Days by date
Those with titles in italics fall on a Saturday October 2018
30: The Genius of Titian................................. 18
September 2019
17: The London Backstreet Walk.....................4
31: Islamic Art in London................................ 11
3: London's Underground Railway................ 10
25: Ancient Greece at the British Museum................................................... 4
February 2019
20: Ancient Egypt at the British Museum..................................8
26: Great Railway Termini..................................5 27: London Lecture Afternoon......................... 20 November 2018 7: The Golden Age of Dutch Painting.............6 8: The Italian Renaissance.................................7 15: Turner & Claude........................................... 7 16: Ancient Egypt at the British Museum..................................8 20: Arts of India................................................... 8 21: Great Railway Termini..................................5 21: Ashurbanipal: King of the World...............9 22: London's Underground Railway............. 10 27: Spanish Art in London.............................. 10 28: Islamic Art in London................................ 11 29: Caravaggio & Rembrandt........................ 11
6: Ashurbanipal: King of the World.................9 7: The Golden Age of British Painting......... 15 8: Ancient Egypt at the British Museum..................................8
October 2019 8: Interwar Interiors......................................... 17
14: The Golden Age of Dutch Painting..........6
30: Ancient Greece at the British Museum................................................... 4
15: London's Underground Railway............. 10
November 2019
22: The Italian Renaissance...............................7
4: Japanese Art in London.............................. 12
March 2019
8: Caravaggio & Rembrandt........................... 11
6: Japanese Art in London.............................. 12 11: Arts of India................................................... 8 12: Spanish Art in London.............................. 10 13: Ancient Greece at the British Museum................................................... 4 19: The Italian Renaissance...............................7 20: The Golden Age of British Painting....... 15
12: The Italian Renaissance...............................7 15: Islamic Art in London................................ 11 19: The Golden Age of British Painting....... 15 21: The Genius of Titian................................. 18 22: Ancient Egypt at the British Museum..................................8 27: London's Underground Railway............. 10
21: Roses and Nightingales............................ 13
December 2019 3: The Golden Age of British Painting......... 15
December 2018
29: Ancient Egypt at the British Museum..................................8
4: Caravaggio & Rembrandt........................... 11
4: Japanese Art in London.............................. 12
April 2019
5: The Italian Renaissance.................................7
5: Ancient Greece at the British Museum................................................... 4
2: Ever Changing City Skyline........................ 19
5: Ancient Greece at the British Museum................................................... 4
6: Roses and Nightingales.............................. 13
9: London's Underground Railway................ 10
29: Chinese Ceramics..................................... 12
10: Mantegna & Bellini................................... 14 11: Golden Age of British Painting............... 15
8: Interwar Interiors......................................... 17 May 2019 7: The Tudors.................................................... 18
January 2019
10: The London Backstreet Walk.....................4
10: Venetian Art in London............................ 16
July 2019
23: Ancient Greece at the British Museum................................................... 4
2: The Ever Changing City Skyline................ 19 8: Interwar Interiors......................................... 17
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Illustrations. Above: The City of London, 20th-century reproduction of an engraving by S. & N. Buck, 1749. Front cover: Persepolis, Sphinx in the second portal, wood engraving c. 1880. Right: Sketching of Westminster
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Contents – General information Making a booking There is no booking form for London Days. You can book over the phone, or online at www.martinrandall.com. 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 email 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.
London Days vouchers: the perfect gift idea 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 are an ideal gift for occasions, from birthdays to anniversaries. 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 email info@martinrandall.co.uk Martin Randall Australasia: 1300 55 95 95, or email anz@martinrandall.com.au North America: 1 800 988 6168, or email usa@martinrandall.com
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.
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.
We also expect to run the following London Days. Please contact us to register your interest in any of them. London Parks Walk new Norman London new
Alternatively, contact us to receive our fortnightly e-mail updates on the latest range of London Days. Send an e-mail to info@martinrandall.co.uk, or call 020 8742 3355. Book online at www.martinrandall.com
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The London Backstreet Walk From Hyde Park to The Tower Image: Lincoln’s Inn, watercolour. c. 1910.
Wednesday 17 October 2018 (le 253) Lecturer: Barnaby Rogerson Friday 10 May 2019 (lf 521) Lecturer: Sophie Campbell 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. 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. 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 mediaeval street patterns.
Some special arrangements have been made to enter a few buildings en route. Champagne at the Savoy and lunch in the grandest Elizabethan hall in England 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. Start: 9.00am, Hyde Park Corner, Wellington Arch. Finish: c. 5.40pm at Tower Hill Station. Price: £215. This includes refreshments and lunch, admission charges and donations. 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 (though there are 4 refreshment breaks). The terrain is fairly flat but there are steps (one flight has 57). Stout shoes are of course advisable – but no trainers please: they are specifically forbidden at the lunch venue. Group size: maximum 18 participants.
Image: section of the Parthenon Frieze, wood engraving c. 1880.
Ancient Greece at the British Museum
Later start
Thursday 25 October 2018 (lf 277) Wednesday 5 December 2018 (lf 354) Wednesday 23 January 2019 (lf 410) Wednesday 13 March 2019 (lf 437) Wednesday 30 October 2019 (lf 866) Thursday 5 December 2019 (lf 926) Lecturer: Professor Antony Spawforth
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. 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.
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 an hour each, with relatively leisurely refreshment breaks.
Start: 10.15am, British Museum. Finish: by 5.15pm. Price: £195. This includes lunch and morning and afternoon refreshments at the Great Court Restaurant. Group size: maximum 14 participants. 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
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Combine the March day with: Spanish Art in London, Tuesday 12 March. Combine the December 2019 day with: Caravaggio and Rembrandt, Wednesday 4 December.
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Great Railway Termini Paddington, King’s Cross and St Pancras stations Image: St Pancras Station, wood engraving (detail) c. 1880.
Friday 26 October 2018 (le 289) Wednesday 21 November 2018 (le 311) Lecturer: Anthony Lambert Two eyebrow-raising assertions: the railways were a Georgian invention, all the ingredients being in place before 1830; and the twenty-first 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 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. 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.
Start: 9.30am at Paddington Station. Finish: c. 4.45pm at St Pancras Station. Price: £195 This includes morning and afternoon refreshments, lunch, one journey by underground and special arrangements. Group size: maximum 16 participants. Combine the November day with: London's Underground Railway, Thursday 22 November,.
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. The contiguous Midland Grand Hotel by Sir George Gilbert Scott is perhaps the best-known of all Victorian buildings.
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The Golden Age of Dutch Painting at the National Gallery
Later start
Image: ‘The Tavern Garden’, etching c. 1890 after a painting by Jan Steen (1626–1679).
Wednesday 7 November 2018 (le 319) Currently full Wednesday 14 February 2019 (lf 425) Lecturer: Dr Helen Langdon In the 17th-century the northern Netherlands, newly independent of Spanish rule and enriched by colonial territories, enjoyed an extraordinary flourishing of the arts. A new, broadly middle class, public of merchants, wealthy industrialists, and city officials, wished to display their wealth, and for this new market artists created an unprecedented variety of subjects. The first session addresses the waning dominance of Italian art, contrasting the exotic artificiality of Mannerist artists, with the new and powerful naturalism of the Dutch followers of Caravaggio. The subsequent three sessions focus on portraiture, and the new specialisations of Dutch artists, in genre, landscape, townscape, still life and flower painting. The National Gallery has one of the richest collections of Dutch art outside the Netherlands, and the day looks at on some outstanding and singular works; among them Rembrandt’s late Self Portrait; Hobbema’s Avenue at Middelharnis; a small room of exquisite flower paintings; an unusual group of domestic scenes by Vermeer and De Hooch which cover their full range and power. Dutch art looks realistic, but the day raises questions as to how truthful it was; what was the role of specialisation; how closely it related to popular culture, popular sayings, proverbs, and theatre. Helen Langdon is one of MRT’s most admired lecturers. Start: 10.15am, National Gallery, Getty Entrance. Finish: 5.15pm, National Gallery. Price: £205. This includes a donation to the gallery, lunch and mid-morning and midafternoon refreshments. Group size: maximum 14 participants. Combine the February Day with: London's Underground Railway, Friday 15 February.
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The Italian Renaissance at the National Gallery
Tuesday 19 March 2019 (lf 452) Tuesday 12 November 2019 (lf 886) Lecturer: Dr Michael Douglas-Scott 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.
Later start
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. Start: 10.15am, National Gallery, Sainsbury Wing. Finish: 5.15pm, National Gallery. Price: £205. This includes lunch, mid-morning and mid-afternoon refreshments. Group size: maximum 14 participants. Combine the March day with: The Golden Age of British Painting, Wednesday 20 March 2019. Combine the November day with: Opera in Southern Sicily, 5-11 November 2019. Combine the December day with: Caravaggio and Rembrandt, Wednesday 4 December 2019.
Turner & Claude The Poetic Landscape
J.M.W. Turner, on seeing a landscape by Claude Lorrain, burst into tears and exclaimed ‘I shall never be able to paint anything like that’. This day explores how the greatest of British Romantic landscape painters, Constable and Turner, strove to outdo the poetic visions, and magical effects of light, of 17th-century landscapists, among them Claude and Poussin. The National Gallery in London has the finest collection of 17th-century landscape in the world, while Tate Britain displays the largest collection of Turner. The day opens with the former, where we shall explore Claude’s creation of an intensely imagined poetical world, rich in effects of sunlight and melting distances, and touching in his response to classical myth. Here, too, are Poussin’s graver, sublime landscapes, and works by ‘savage’ Rosa which evoke fear and horror.
Later start
Image: Steel engraving c. 1850 after John Constable’s ‘The Cornfield’ (1826).
Thursday 15 November 2018 (lf 313) Lecturer: Dr Helen Langdon
Image: The National Gallery, London
Thursday 8 November 2018 (lf 308) Friday 22 February 2019 (lf 408) Thursday 5 December 2019 (lf 355) Lecturer: Dr Antonia Whitley
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Arcadian Italy, and of the overwhelming forces of nature, of storm, mist and deluge. Turner, in his will, directed that two of his works should be hung side by side with two by Claude. His wish has been honoured, and perhaps, at the end of the day, we shall each be able to form a view on whether his initial tears of despair were justified. Start: National Gallery, Sainsbury Wing 10.15am. Finish: Tate Britain c. 5.15pm. Price: £195. This includes lunch at the National Dining Rooms, mid-morning and midafternoon refreshments and one taxi journey. Group size: maximum 14 participants. Combine the day with: Ancient Egypt at the British Museum, Friday 16 November.
After time in the galleries of British landscape painting, among them Turners and Constables, the afternoon is spent at Tate Britain to appreciate afresh the creative impact of these Old Masters on Constable’s naturalistic scenes, and on Turner’s evocations of a mythical, Book online at www.martinrandall.com
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Fragment of a wall painting from ‘Egyptian Pictures’ by Revd Samuel Manning c. 1875.
Ancient Egypt at the British Museum Belief & society
Later start
Friday 16 November 2018 (lf 314) Friday 8 February 2019 (lf 421) Friday 29 March 2019 (lf 458) Friday 20 September 2019 (lf 737) Friday 22 November 2019 (lf 905) 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 late-afternoon 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. Sessions are interspersed with refreshments in the Great Court restaurant. Start: 3.15pm at the British Museum. Finish: c. 8.15pm at the British Museum. Price: £185 in 2018, £190 in 2019. This includes afternoon refreshments, a light supper (1-course with wine) and a donation to the museum. Group size: maximum 14 participants. Combine the November 2018 departure with: Turner and Claude, Thursday 15 November.
Image: Shah Jahan receiving his son, 20th-century miniature painting after a 18th-century original.
The Arts of India At the British Museum & V&A
Later start
Tuesday 20 November 2018 (le 315) Monday 11 March 2019 (lf 445) Lecturer: Rosemary Crill If asked to name the London museum best endowed with the finest Indian art, one would be hard-put to choose between the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The question is rhetorical, of course; their respective collections have a different focus and different strengths. Both institutions provide the ideal playground to discover, explore and appreciate the arts of the Indian subcontinent. The morning at the British Museum is devoted mainly to the sacred and looks at the origins of the religious impulse and the growth of religious art. Expressed chiefly in sculpture, it begins with the sealings of the Indus Valley-Saraswati civilisation and continues through fertility cults and ritual objects to the rise of Buddhism and Jainism and the development of classical Hinduism. The magnificent Amaravati ‘marbles’ in the Asahi Shimbun Gallery provide the culmination. The afternoon’s main theme is more secular. The visit to the Nehru Gallery in the V&A focuses first on the riches of the Mughal empire, with some of the world’s greatest Indian miniature Book online at www.martinrandall.com
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paintings and jade carvings. After tea, the focus is on the interaction between India and Britain in the wake of the granting of the East India Company’s charter in 1600. Trade, empire and the ensuing impact of India on Britain, especially in its interiors and dress, are all discussed. Finally, the process is reversed by exploring, through painting and decorative arts, the impact of Britain on India, especially in so-called ‘Company painting’ and the superb objects made in the last surge of patronage in the 19th century. There are two one-hour sessions at both museums, with a refreshment break between each session. Start: 10.15am at the British Museum. Finish: 5.30pm at the V&A. Price: £205. This includes lunch, morning and afternoon refreshments, one tube journey and museum donations. Fitness: travel is by Underground which can be busy and there is some walking and standing during the day. Group Size: maximum 14 participants. Combine the March day with: Spanish Art in London, Tuesday 12 March. Te l e p h o n e 0 2 0 8 7 4 2 3 3 5 5
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Ashurbanipal, King of the World Exhibition and Assyrian collections at the British Museum
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Wednesday 21 November 2018 (le 316) Wednesday 6 February 2019 (lf 409) Lecturer: Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones King Ashurbanipal of Assyria (r. 668–c. 631 BC) was the most powerful ruler on earth, describing himself, appropriately, in inscriptions as ‘King of the World’. His rulership was centred in the great city of Nineveh (now in northern Iraq) and his empire stretched from the shores of the eastern Mediterranean to the Zagros mountains of Iran. His reign marked the high point of the Neo-Assyrian empire in terms of military matters, building works, as well as literature and the arts. Conquest and culture found a perfect synergy in the person of this amazing king. Ashurbanipal was an astute self-publicist and proved the vigour of his rulership in sculpted scenes showing him hunting and killing fierce lions and in the killing of enemy soldiers. He boasted of his successes on the hunting field and the battlefield as he crushed his enemies with brute force. And yet Ashurbanipal used his victories to bring to Nineveh the wealth of foreign tribute which made the city the centre of the world and to beautify its palaces with gardens and libraries. The king’s renown as a scholar and a diplomat rivalled his image as a warrior. In 612 BC, shortly after Ashurbanipal’s sudden death, Nineveh was destroyed by the combined forces of the Medes and the Babylonians and its ruins were lost to history. In the 1840s their rediscovery opened up again the lost world of Ashurbanipal. The day is spent at the British Museum viewing its unrivalled collection of Assyrian antiquities and culminates with a visit to the Ashurbanipal exhibition. The lecturer is Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, expert on the history and cultures of the ancient Near East. Start: 10.15am, British Museum. Finish: c. 5.15pm. Price: £215. This includes lunch and morning and mid-afternoon refreshments and entrance to the exhibition. Group size: maximum 14 participants. Combine the November day with: Arts of India, Tuesday 20 November. Combine the February day with: The Golden Age of British Painting, Thursday 7 February..
Images: Above, Discovery of Nimrud Frederick Charles Cooper (1810 – 1880), Nimrud, mid-19th century, watercolour on paper © The Trustees of the British Museum. Below, Assyrian.Empire map A map showing the extent of the Assyrian empire (in pink). Map produced by Paul Goodhead.
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Image: experimental first trip on the Underground, wood engraving c. 1880.
London’s Underground Railway A History & Appreciation of the Tube government came towards the end of the process, not in advance.
Thursday 22 November 2018 (le 273) Friday 15 February 2019 (lf 407) Tuesday 9 April 2019 (lf 486) Tuesday 3 September 2019 (lf 692) Wednesday 27 November 2019 (lf 910) 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
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: £215. This includes all Tube travel, lunch and refreshments. Group size: maximum 15 participants. Combine the February day with: The Golden Age of Dutch Painting, Thursday 14 February. Combine the April day with: Interwar Interiors Monday 8 April.
Image: Diego Velázquez, engraving c. 1830.
Spanish Art in London At Apsley House, Wallace Collection and National Gallery Tuesday 27 November 2018 (le 344) Tuesday 12 March 2019 (lf 447) Lecturer: Gail Turner In 1848 the great pioneer in the study of Spanish art, Sir William Stirling Maxwell, declared that ‘the private collections of England could probably furnish forth a gallery of Spanish pictures second only to that of the Queen of Spain’. A great many of these pictures have since entered public collections throughout the country, making Great Britain one of the best places outside Spain to study Spanish art. Initially, it was the Peninsular War of 18081814 that broke the floodgates and provided a new market for Spanish art, and many more paintings were to leave Spain when the Spanish monasteries were dissolved in 1832. One such private collection is the 1st Duke of Wellington’s at Apsley House. Displayed inside this aristocratic townhouse are numerous paintings taken from Madrid’s Royal Palace by Joseph Bonaparte during the Peninsular War and later given to Wellington by King Ferdinand of Spain. The Wallace Collection includes Velázquez’s mesmerizing portrait of a Lady with a Fan as well as a rare work by the Sevillian artist, Alonso Book online at www.martinrandall.com
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Later start
Cano, who was known as the ‘Michelangelo of Spain’. The National Gallery owns 9 paintings by Velázquez that span his career, from his early beginnings in Seville to his courtly paintings for Philip IV in Madrid. Alongside Velázquez hang some of Murillo’s finest paintings including several large canvases that originally decorated the altars of Seville’s monasteries and convents. The National Gallery also prides itself on a small group of works by El Greco, an artist who became fashionable in the early 20th century, principally thanks to the art critic Roger Fry who compared the abstract quality of his work with Cézanne. Start: 10.15am at Apsley House. Finish: c. 5.30pm at the National Gallery. Price: £215. This includes lunch, refreshments, donations to the galleries and taxis. Fitness: travel is by taxi, but you are on your feet throughout the day while looking and listening. Group size: maximum 14 participants. Combine the November day with: Islamic Art in London, Wednesday 28 November. Combine the March day with: Ancient Greece Te l e p h o n e 0 2 0 8 7 4 2 3 3 5 5
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Islamic Art in London The V&A & the British Museum
Two of Britain’s greatest museums provide a London treasure-house of Islamic works of art. The first is the V&A. One of its original aims, in 1852, was to inspire British designers and manufacturers. And its Islamic collections did just that, one of its most notable recipients being William de Morgan (1839-1917), the great lustre ceramicist. Today, the Islamic gallery, focused on the famous Ardabil carpet, houses an awesome assemblage of Islamic works of art, including ceramics, tilework, metalwork, woodwork, glass, rock crystal, textiles and carpets. It also has a valuable educational group of cases which display the four elements so common in Islamic art – calligraphy, geometry, the arabesque (‘inspired by plants’), and figural art (‘images and poetry’). The day will start with these to form an initial understanding of Islamic art and what aesthetic or religious principles have helped to fashion it. Moving through the gallery, art and design are put into their Islamic cultural context, while enjoying the different designs
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displayed, particularly on carpets and textiles, as well as learning about individual pieces. The British Museum offers the visitor an incredibly rich collection of Islamic ceramics and metalwork, as well as some works of art on paper. The development of Islamic art in the different media is traced and the techniques explored which enabled them to evolve and develop, and to have such an impact on Italian Renaissance ceramics and design. The visit will include the major redisplay in the new Albukhary Foundation Galleries of the Islamic world opening in October 2018. Start: 10.15am at the V&A. Finish: approximately 5.15pm at the British Museum. Price: £205 in 2018, and £210 in 2019.. This includes morning and afternoon refreshments and lunch in the William Morris room at the V&A, donations and one journey by Underground. Fitness: travel is by Underground and there is some walking and standing during the day. Group size: maximum 14 participants.
Caravaggio & Rembrandt A new naturalism
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potential of chiaroscuro (contrasting light and shade) to dramatic effect, and the use of humble models and realism rather than idealism to tell religious stories in a new and moving way.
Few individuals have had such a revolutionary impact on the history of art as Caravaggio (1571–1610). His short life was violent and intermittently spent as a fugitive, but the impact of his artistic innovations was felt throughout Europe and through the whole course of the seventeenth century.
There are four sessions in the galleries of about an hour each.
The NG has one of the best collections of Rembrandt paintings in the world – the Dutchman never fell from favour among collectors, in sharp contrast with Caravaggio, who was practically forgotten in the nineteenth century. But they shared much, principally exploitation of the expressive and naturalistic
Image: ‘Self-portrait with Saskia’ 1636, after Rembrandt.
Thursday 29 November 2018 (le 348) Friday 8 November 2019 (lf 884) Wednesday 4 December 2019 (lf 925) Lecturer: Dr Helen Langdon
The National Gallery has three paintings by Caravaggio (sometimes one is on loan elsewhere), but the emphasis of this day is on putting the artist and his achievements in his Italian context and on exploring his influence beyond the peninsula. Among the other artists studied, therefore, are Rubens, Velázquez, and, above all, Rembrandt (1606–1669).
Image: Mural Decoration, Print c.1870 from The Art Journal
Wednesday 28 November 2018 (le 324) Thursday 31 January 2019 (lf 412) Friday 15 November 2019 (lf 899) Lecturer: Professor James Allan
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Helen Langdon is author of what remains the best book on Caravaggio, and is one of MRT’s most admired lecturers.
Start: 10.15am, National Gallery, Sainsbury Wing. Finish: 5.15pm. Price: £205. This includes lunch, mid-morning and mid-afternoon refreshments. Group size: maximum 14 participants. Combine the November 2018 day with: Islamic Art in London, Wednesday 28 November. Combine the December 2019 day with: The Golden Age of British Painting, Tuesday 3 December.
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Image: Chinese porcelain, wood engraving from 'The Magazine of Art' 1882.
Chinese Ceramics & collecting in Britain Thursday 29 November 2018 (le 349) Lecturer: Dr Lars Tharp Unsurpassed by numerous imitators, the ceramic traditions of China – and of porcelain in particular – occupy the high ground of world ceramics. China was the first nation to develop a translucent white ceramic material in Europe, dubbed porcelain. After its long gestation it emerged during the Tang Dynasty (705-907 AD) and in the centuries that followed it became one of the first globally traded, man-made luxury commodities, its forms and surface decoration influencing the ceramic traditions of countless states throughout Asia and Europe. Not until 1710 was the European equivalent of hard-paste Chinese porcelain achieved at Meissen.
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by the opening up of trade with Japan. Rather than pursuing contemporary wares (as in the previous centuries), collectors were now on the hunt for antique ceramics. The extraordinary legacy of those 19th and 20th century collectors can today be seen in both of London’s great museums. To place ceramics into their historical context, the morning begins at
the V&A with a general introduction to Chinese art in the Tsui Gallery. The Qing Dynasty rooms further exemplify European interest in Chinese material culture during the latter half of the Victorian era and into the 20th century. The fruits and legacy of a new connoisseurship emerging in the early 20th century are explored at the British Museum. The jewel in the crown of the museum’s many treasures is the Percival David Collection, internationally regarded as the most important private collection of its kind outside China’s own imperial holdings in Beijing and Taiwan’s National Palace Museum. Start: 10.15am, at The Victoria and Albert Museum. Finish: 5.10pm, at the British Museum.
The collecting history of Chinese ceramics in Britain stretches back to the time of Elizabeth I, the tempo increasing by the accession in 1689 of William and Mary, reaching a climax in the 18th century. Then followed the hiatus of the Napoleonic Wars, the decline of the East India Company, the Opium Wars and the simultaneous demise of Imperial China. For a while the supply of and taste for China’s luxuries faltered. But from the middle of the 1800s, with the rising prosperity of the British middle classes - and the new supply of trophies following the sacking of the Summer Palace the fever for Asian art resumed, further boosted
Price: £215. This includes lunch, mid-morning and mid-afternoon refreshments at William Morris room, V&A. Group size: maximum 14 participants. Combine this day with: Spanish Art in London, Tuesday 27 November or Islamic Art in London. Wednesday 28 November.
Image: Japanese warrior fromLe Tour du Monde1866
Japanese Art in London at the V&A and the British Museum
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Tuesday 4 December 2018 (lf 353) Wednesday 6 March 2019 (lf 438) Monday 4 November 2019 (lf 874) Lecturer: Dr Monika Hinkel The day begins at the V&A which holds one of the world’s most comprehensive collections of Japanese works of art and design. Highlights of The Toshiba Gallery of Japanese Art are the diverse objects of the Edo period (16151868), including arms and armour, kimono, lacquerware, tea ceramics and woodblock prints as well as artefacts and crafts dating from the Meiji era (1868-1912). The visit to the British Museum explores the recently refurbished and reopened Mitsubishi Corporation Japanese Galleries. Japanese art has formed an integral part of the collection at the British Museum since its founding in 1753. Objects are studied dating from Ancient Japan to the Modern period, showcasing the outstanding craftsmanship and artistic creativity of the arts of courtiers, samurai and townspeople.
Start: 10.15am, V&A museum. Finish: c.5.30pm, British Museum Price: £195 in 2018 and £205 in 2019. This includes mid-morning refreshments and lunch in the William Morris room at the V&A, midafternoon refreshments at the Great Court Restaurant, donations, and one tube journey. Fitness: There is one tube journey as well as some walking and standing. Group size: maximum 14 participants. Combine the December day with: Ancient Greece at the British Museum, Wednesday 5 December.
The day is led by Dr Monika Hinkel, lecturer of Japanese art and specialist in Japanese woodblock prints. Book online at www.martinrandall.com
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Roses and Nightingales Persianate art at the V&A and British Museum
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Image: Persepolis, Sphinx in the second portal, wood engraving c. 1880.
Thursday 6 December 2018 (le 356) Thursday 21 March 2019 (lf 453) Lecturer: Professor Lloyd LlewellynJones The art of Iran is an eclectic mix of styles and motifs drawn from different encounters with foreign peoples but fused together to produce a distinctive and harmonious look which is distinctly - and wonderfully - Persian. Persia, or modern-day Iran, lies at the heart of world civilisations. Its strategic position on the world map helps explain its importance as a conduit through which world cultures have passed and as a hub of civilisation which has had a profound influence upon all societies it has encountered. The Persians under the Achaemenid dynasty (559–331bc) were the first people to create a world-empire, the largest and most influential before Alexander. Encompassing twenty-three disparate lands and peoples, from Libya to India and from southern Russia to the Indian Ocean, it held together for 230 years. Exceptionally for the ancient world, it was built on the principles of tolerance and harmony.
Under the Sasanian shahs (224–651ad), Persia went head to head in a power struggle with Rome and it was in this era that Iranian culture spread into the west, ultimately having a profound effect upon the Byzantine culture of the Christian world. The coming of Islam to Iran through the Arab invasion saw a hiatus in the spread of Persian culture, but ultimately even the Arabs were ‘Persianized.’
Combine the December day with: Ancient Greece at the British Museum, Wednesday 5 December. Combine the March day with: The Golden Age of British Painting, Wednesday 20 March.
This day gives the opportunity to become familiar with objects of supreme historical and cultural significance. The V&A and British Museum hold rich and important collections of Persian artefacts which between them tell the story of Iran from its ancient past to its vibrant present. Start: 10.15am, British Museum Finish: c. 4.30pm, V&A Price: £205. This includes lunch, midmorning and mid-afternoon refreshments, one Underground journey and donations to the museums. Group size: maximum 14 participants
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Mantegna and Bellini Lectures and exhibition at the National Gallery
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A day built around Mantegna and Bellini, the exhibition at the National Gallery in London. Lectures in the morning at the Society of Antiquaries, by the curators of the exhibition and by the restorer of one of the exhibits. Lunch at a good restaurant between the lecture venue and the Gallery. In about 1453 the Paduan painter Andrea Mantegna married one Nicolosia Bellini from Venice, thus gaining as a brother-in-law Giovanni Bellini, also a painter. Subsequently they became two of the most renowned and influential Italian artists of their day, and their achievements are to be celebrated in Mantegna and Bellini at the National Gallery (1st October 2018 to 27th Janury 2019). Despite the familial connection and their similar ages, Mantegna and Giovanni Bellini only worked in close proximity briefly before Mantegna moved to Mantua to take up the post of court painter to the Gonzaga family. However, it is clear that their respective styles and practices were deeply influenced by each other, and their creative exchange continued as long as they both lived. The scholarly interest in antiquity and humanism that suffuses Mantegna’s art had a profound impact on Bellini’s early style, and Bellini’s atmospheric landscapes and chromaticism in turn inspired Mantegna. On the occasion of this major exhibition, MRT is holding a study day with lectures by three
outstanding experts followed by lunch and a visit to the exhibition. Two of the speakers are the exhibition’s curators, Caroline Campbell, Jacob Rothschild head of the curatorial department at the National Gallery, and Sarah Vowles, curator of Italian prints and drawings at the British Museum. The third is National Gallery conservator Jill Dunkerton, who has spent much of the last three years restoring Bellini’s Assasination of St Peter the Martyr, which will be a highlight of the exhibition.
Start: 10.00am, Society of Antiquaries, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BE. Finish: you enter the exhibition any time between 2.30pm and 3.30pm and stay as long as you want (the exhibition closes at 6.00pm). Price: £195, £180 for National Gallery members. This includes morning refreshments, lunch and admission to the National Gallery exhibition.
The talks take place in the Society of Antiquaries at Burlington House in Piccadilly. Lunch follows in a nearby restaurant, and then participants walk in their own time to the National Gallery. Admission to the exhibition is by pre-booked timed ticket. Audio guides are included, but the speakers will be on hand in the exhibition to respond to questions.
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Image: Giovanni Bellini, The Agony in the Garden, about 1465 © The National Gallery, London
Monday 10 December 2018 (le 359) Caroline Campbell, Jill Dunkerton, Sarah Vowles
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The Golden Age of British Painting Hogarth to the Pre-Raphaelites
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Image: ‘The Honourable Mrs Graham’, engraving after Thomas Gainsborough.
Tuesday 11 December 2018 (lf 360) Thursday 7 February 2019 (lf 426) Wednesday 20 March 2019 (lf 451) Tuesday 19 November 2019 (lf 903) Tuesday 3 December 2019 (lf 924) 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, whilst 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. 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, Turner, Samuel Palmer and the PreRaphaelite brotherhood. Not to mention 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 Neo-Classicism and Romanticism, to the meticulous truth to nature of the early Pre-Raphaelites. 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. The day takes in a selection of the greatest masterpieces of English painting in the collections at the National Gallery and Tate Britain. Start: 10.15am, at the National Gallery. Finish: c. 5.30pm, at Tate Britain. Price: £195 in 2018 and £205 in 2019. This includes lunch, refreshments, one taxi journey and donations to the galleries. Group size: maximum 14 participants. Combine the December departure with: Mantegna & Belline, Monday 10 December. Combine the February departure with: Age of Victoria - a weekend symposium in Taunton 8-11 February. Combine the March departure with: The Italian Renaissance, Tuesday 19 March.
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Venetian Art in London Colour, light and canals Thursday 10 January 2019 (lf 404) 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 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
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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. The day is led by Lucy Whitaker, senior curator of paintings for the Royal Collection, who has worked and published on both sixteenth and eighteenth century Venetian art. Start: 10.15am, National Gallery. Finish: c.5.15pm, 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.
Image: Piazza San Marco
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Interwar Interiors Modernist, Traditional, & Art Deco Image: Eltham Palace
Monday 8 April 2019 (lf 484) Monday 8 July 2019 (lf 617) Tuesday 8 October 2019 (lf 784) Lecturer: Paul Atterbury There were only twenty years between the First and the Second World Wars, and several of those were blighted by post-war scarcity and financial calamity. And then came the Blitz, followed by decades of indifference and demolition. Nevertheless, some fine examples of architecture and interior design of the time survive, of which perhaps the most striking feature is the great variety of styles employed. Art Deco is commonly seen as the defining style of the time, though fully-fledged schemes were rare. The day starts with the most extensive to survive, the Courtauld mansion at Eltham Palace, which has been progressively restored and opened up in recent years. The Edwardian and New Georgian era saw a surge of rebuilding in London but events intervened, and many buildings completed in the 1920s were designed before the 1914–18 War. So Traditionalism was the norm, Classical to varying degrees, though one extraordinary set of interiors is Tudor in style. Other visits include two of the great early twentieth century department stores Liberty’s and Simpsons (now Waterstones), Piccadilly Underground Station and the 1930s interior of the old Regent Palace Hotel sensitively restored by Dixon Jones and Donald Insall Associates where the day breaks for lunch. The day ends with the Art Deco interiors of the Park Lane Hotel and tea in the Palm Court. Start: 8.50am, at Victoria mainline station. Finish: c. 5.30pm, at the Park Lane Hotel, Piccadilly. Price: £220. This includes lunch, refreshments, travel by train and taxi, an admission charge and donations. Fitness: participants need to be able to cope with busy trains and a considerable time on foot; standing or walking. Group size: maximum 18 participants. Combine the April day with: London's Underground Railway, Tuesday 9 April 2019. Combine the July day with: Arts and Crafts, Tuesday 9 July 2019, also led by Paul Atterbury.
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Image: copper engraving 1787 by J. L. Delignon, after Titian’s ‘Perseus & Andromeda’ (detail).
The Genius of Titian National Gallery and Wallace Collection
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Wednesday 30 January 2019 (lf 411) Thursday 21 November 2019 (lf 907) Lecturer: Lucy Whitaker Titian’s genius was recognised early in his career, and by the time of his death in his eighties (1576) the esteem in which he was held probably exceeded that attaching to any other living artist in previous history. Moreover, his star has never waned since, contrary to the usual pattern which sees even ‘great’ artists cast into the shadows for a while by the capricious wheel of taste. Such was his prestige that in his maturity rarely did even the grandest of Venetian nobility manage to commission a picture from him, even though Venice was his only long-term place of residence as an adult. Only the greatest elsewhere in Italy were so honoured – the Dukes of Ferrara and Urbino, and the Pope – and, beyond the peninsula, the most powerful rulers in Europe, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and his son Philip II of Spain. It follows that subsequently paintings by Titian were to be found only in the most illustrious princely collections or, when the balance of financial power shifted towards the mercantile and manufacturing nations, in the national galleries
only of the most prosperous powers. Even leaving aside the 3 or 4 which are disputed, London’s National Gallery has 15 unquestioned Titians, a total exceeded only by the Prado in Madrid and the Kunsthistoriches Museum in Vienna. There is another on public display in London, Perseus & Andromeda in the Wallace Collection. The day is led by Lucy Whitaker, Senior Curator of Paintings and Head of Research for the Royal Collection Trust in London. Start: Wallace Collection, c. 10.30am (nearest underground stations Bond Street or Marble Arch). Finish: The National Gallery, c.5.00pm. Price: £205, including morning and afternoon refreshments and lunch, donations to both collections and a taxi journey. Group size: maximum 14 participants Combine the January day with: Islamic Art in London, Thursday 31 January 2019. Combine the November day with: The Golden Age of British Painting, Tuesday 19 November 2019.
Image: Hampton Court, Ann Boleyn’s Gateway, watercolour by E.W. Haslehurst, publ. c. 1910.
The Tudors Hampton Court, tombs & portraits Tuesday 7 May 2019 (lf 513) Lecturer: Dr Neil Younger
Start: 9.25am, Westminster Abbey (west door).
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.
Price: £215. This includes lunch, morning refreshments, admission charges and transport.
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 16th-century interiors and works of art – great hall, chapel, private apartments, kitchens, tapestries and paintings.
Finish: c. 6.30pm at Waterloo Station.
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 18 participants. Combine the May departure with: Tudor England, 8-13 May 2019.
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.
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The Ever-Changing City Skyline Wren’s Cathedral to Rees’s Towers
For twenty-eight years Peter Rees was the City of London’s chief planning officer, and since 2014 has been Professor of Places and City Planning at University College London. Charismatic, articulate and passionate about planning, he has done more to shape the City’s current appearance than any other single individual, and this is an exceptional opportunity to hear his story and to understand how and why London looks as it does. Starting at St Paul’s, we see some of the planning challenges posed by the ‘reframing’ of the Cathedral over the last decades. Paternoster Square was redeveloped following a tortuous process of consultation, royal intervention and redesign. After a visit to the roof-top space at Jean Nouvel’s 1 New Change, there is a surreptitious stroll through The Royal Exchange, the City’s centre of gossip, and an exploration of the hidden alleyways between Cornhill and Lombard Street. Here banking was born, and City pubs still fulfil a vital business role.
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From the mid-1980s, and boosted by the ‘Big Bang’, the Square Mile became larger, swallowing parts of neighbouring boroughs. Broadgate is a fine example of a late 20thcentury business quarter with ground-scraper buildings accommodating large dealing floors for international banks and fine publicly-accessible spaces providing the social opportunities which are conducive to business activity. Only 25 years later, the development is being refurbished and some buildings replaced.
Start: 10.30am, St Paul’s tube station. Finish: c. 7.00pm, The Walkie-Talkie, 20 Fenchurch Street EC3. Price: £220. This includes lunch, refreshments and one taxi journey. Fitness: most of the day is spent outside and on foot, both standing and walking. Group size: maximum 18 participants.
Having grown outwards in the 80s and 90s, the City is now growing upwards, with a cluster of office towers sited to maximise their proximity to an abundance of public transport while minimising their impact upon the London skyline. A Gherkin sits alongside a CheeseGrater, and the Walkie-Talkie provides a high-level opportunity to contemplate the everchanging City below.
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Image: London Skyline as seen from the Tate Modern Viewing Platform. Photo by MRT Staff Rosanna Reade
Tuesday 2 April 2019 (lf 483) Tuesday 2 July 2019 (lf 611) Lecturer: Professor Peter Rees CBE
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London Lecture Afternoon at the Royal Society
Image: ©Royal Society
Saturday 27 October 2018 (le 291) The Royal Society, London Price: £75 per person
From Andean Civilisation to English country houses, and from Mozart’s first piano lessons to interwar Paris, the 2018 London lecture afternoon promises a broad range of talks from MRT’s distinguished pool of speakers. This year’s venue is the Royal Society on Carlton House Terrace which provides a fully-equipped lecture theatre and adjoining rooms with wonderful views overlooking St James’s Park.
The Talks: Dr David Beresford-Jones, Why the Andes? The place of Andean Civilisation in the Human Story Anthony Lambert, Visiting country houses from a historical perspective Dr Alexandra Gajewski, In pursuit of empty tombs and rotten bones: pilgrimage in the late mediaeval West Patrick Bade, Les Années Folles: art and design in Paris between the Wars Elizabeth Roberts, The Black Hand: the long road to Sarajevo Professor John Irving, Mozart learns to play the piano: 6 weeks in autumn 1777
The Venue Our venue this year is the Royal Society at 6–9 Carlton House Terrace, a Grade I building overlooking the Mall. The lectures take place in the Wellcome Trust Lecture Hall, a fullyequipped lecture theatre, with an interval for refreshments and a drinks reception with canapés after the lectures in the adjoining City of London rooms, with wonderful views of St James’s Park.
Practicalities Price: Tickets cost £75 per person, and the afternoon includes a tea break and canapé reception. Start: The first lecture begins at 2.00pm, with the drinks reception commencing at 5.30pm. Finish: The event will end between 7pm and 7.30pm. Please contact us to book or visit www.martinrandall.com/londonlecture-afternoon.
Dr David Beresford-Jones Fellow of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge University. His research interests include the ancient south coast of Peru, the origins of agriculture, Pre-Colombian textiles and the synthesis of archaeology and historical linguistics, particularly in the Andes.
Dr Alexandra Gajewski Architectural historian and lecturer specialising in the mediaeval. She obtained her PhD from the Courtauld and has lectured there and at Birkbeck College. She is currently in Madrid researching ‘The Roles of Women as Makers of Medieval Art and Architecture’.
Anthony Lambert Historian, journalist and travel writer. He has worked for the National Trust for almost 30 years. His books include Victorian & Edwardian Country House Life and he writes regularly for the Historic Houses Association magazine. He has written numerous travel and guide books, including over twenty on railway history and travel.
John Irving Musicologist, pianist and harpsichordist. He is Professor of Performance Practice at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance, and previously taught at the Universities of London and Bristol. He has written six books on Mozart, including the award-winning The Mozart Project, and has made numerous recordings.
Patrick Bade Historian, writer and broadcaster. He studied at UCL and the Courtauld and was senior lecturer at Christies Education for many years. He has worked for the Art Fund, Royal Opera House, National Gallery and V&A. He has published on 19th- and early 20thcentury painting and on historical vocal recordings. His latest book is Music Wars: 1937–1945.
Elizabeth Roberts Historian, writer and lecturer. Elizabeth studied at the University of Sydney. Former lecturer in Balkan history and politics at University College Dublin, and expert witness for the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee on Kosovo and Montenegro. Her books include Realm of the Black Mountain: A History of Montenegro and (ed. with David Madden and Othon Anastasakis) Balkan Legacies of the Great War: The Past is Never Dead.
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