Lecture An Open House for all Comers: Immigration to London from Roman Times to the 21st Century
London was and is a city of many ethnicities. Some have come and gone, and some have stayed for centuries. The Romans, Saxons and the Normans added to the indigenous population with their own cultures. Down the ages there have been French, German and Dutch: Huguenots and Jews: Europeans of all sorts: settlers from the Commonwealth, South Asia, Africa and the Caribean. This lecture will examine the peopling of London, why immigrants came and what they contributed to London’s cosmopolitan metropolis.
Visit The Jewish Museum
In recent years the museum has been completely modernised. The theme of the collections is that of the lives of Jewish people with particular reference to London. Through many objects, displays and the photographic archive the exhibition follows the arrival of the first Jews in 1066, the readmission of Jews as special policy by Oliver Cromwell, and the large immigration of Eastern European Jews in the late 19th century. The significant role that they have played in London’s life is fully brought up to date.
Lecture The History of London's Sporting Activities
William Fitzstephen in 1170 describes ice skating, archery and an early form of football, and indeed from medieval times we can follow the role of sport as a leisure pursuit such as the 17th century pell-mell. Cricket, tennis, football with its various codes all followed and three times the Olympic Games have been held in London. We will see some of the famous personalities such as the 18th century bare-knuckle pugilists, to the professionalism of the present age with its massive landmarks of world famous stadia.
All Day Visit The Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum
The whole history of tennis is here from its role as a Victorian garden pastime to the sensations of the Wimbledon Championships. Through objects on display dating from 1555, the story of Wimbledon is taken through to the present day with photographs and film highlighting a vast display of memorabilia including equipment and clothing, and the Championship trophies themselves.
Lecture Death & Burial: 2000 years of changing attitudes to memory & mourning
Inhumation, cremation and monuments are the stock features of the honouring of the dead. With the enormous discoveries of thousands of Londoners through major archaeological excavations of the Roman and medieval cemeteries London is not short of material. We will see how the enormous crises of the Black Death and the Plague of London were dealt with. As the population of London escalated in Victorian times the old burial grounds became full and closed and extensive new cemeteries as Highgate, Brookwood and Kensal Green were created. And indeed in Victorian times mourning became a cult industry and we will see black costume, jewellery and associated artifacts as a special fashion.
Visit Kensal Green Cemetery
Opened in 1833, Kensal Green cemetery is a veritable parkland of tree-lined avenues punctuated by monuments of every shape and size. The architecture of its buildings, Lodges, Gateways and the Anglican and non-conformist chapels is outstanding, in the vogue of the Greek Revival of the 1830s. The hundreds of Victorian monuments are historic treasures in themselves and the great and the good including royalty are all there. It is sufficient to say that among those we will see are the tombs of Bazalgette, the Brunel family, George Birkbeck and Robert Smirke.
Lecture The Roman Presence in London and Its Region
From the 1st to 4th century AD, Londinium was the port of entry to Roman Britain and for much of this time the capital of the province of Britannia. The sensational series of excavations in the City since the 1970s have revealed the public and personal way of life, so much of which is now exhibited in the Museum of London. This lecture will illustrate our up to date knowledge of the layout of the city, the lives of Roman Londoners and the relation to the hinterland.
All Day Visit Verulamium
Little of Roman London is visible today and so we go out twenty miles to Verulamium by St Albans, the largest Roman city after London. Here we can traverse the walls, visit the only Roman theatre visible in Britain, see the permanently displayed excavated houses and shops, and visit the marvellous Museum with its frescoes, mosaics and every conceivable object to illustrate the lives of its Roman inhabitants. A perfect day out to close the year’s programme of the London Course.
