Term 1
Lecture Young Man About Town: Boswell's London Journal
James Boswell came to London at the age of 21 in 1762 and explored the city with all its wide experiences. These were illuminated in his remarkable private journal which take us from the roots and balls of Northumberland House to the seamy side of Covent Garden and his famous first meeting with Dr. Johnson.
Visit Dr. Johnson's House and Fleet Street
The House is devoted to the life and work of the unique writer, where the famous Dictionary and encyclopoedia was created. After the visit, we will explore the hidden lanes and alleys off Fleet Street, which are the legacy of the post-Fire development.
Lecture Stability and Speculation: the highs and lows of City Finance
The boom of the 18th century was based on the solid foundation of the Bank of England and the development of insurance and merchant banks. The river was the vehicle for escalating world trade, in part stimulated by the slave trade. Financial crashes, as the South Sea Bubble, and the periodic bouts of recession permeated through the news available at the coffee houses and the embryonic newspapers.
Walk Whitehall and St James' Park
This walk will concentrate on the 18th century legacy of the Admiralty, Horse Guards and the Parade, surviving 18thc houses as Queen Anne's Gate, and the landscaped evolution of St. James' Park, bounded by the significant buildings along The Mall.
Lecture Go West: the coming of the squares
The wealthy were constantly moving from the City to the new West End for their homes. The core of the new enclaves were the squares such as Cavendish, Berkeley and Grosvenor. At the heart were the roles of the opulent land owners, the builders and the architects. We will use the great houses to show the changing styles from Palladianism to neo-classical and illustrate how they were surveyed on Jean Rocque's great map of London.
Walk Mayfair and the New 18th Century Settlement
This walk will explore the various elements of the Grosvenor Estate in Mayfair, its planned layout and its surviving 18thc houses, many by significant architects as Henry Holland. A visit will be made to Grosvenor Chapel and the site of Shepherd’s Market, and there will be further exploration of the post-18thc buildings placed in the original plan of the squares and grid-system of streets.
Lecture The Craftsmanship of Georgian London
The consumer society demanded quality of craftsmanship in all elements of private décor. There were new careers established by producers of refined elements of furnishings, porcelain, pictures and fashion, related to highly organized retail outlets in Bond Street, Oxford Street and the Strand. Outstanding were immigrant groups as the Huguenot silk-and-silver-workers. We will see the fascinating evidence of trade cards, and the new pressures brought on the craftsmen by the fashionable consumption of tea, coffee and chocolate.
Walk The Georgian Period at the Victoria And Albert Museum
The V&A is a treasure house of the output of the Georgian craftsmen. With a concentration of time in the 18thc part of the British Galleries, we will see the very best of costume, furniture, porcelain, portraiture and textiles: as time allows we will further explore the display of 18thc theatre.
Term 2
Lecture Health And Disease: hospitals and medicine
Increasing populations and poverty inevitably spread disease through the century but state involvement in preventative or curative medicine was non-existent. But this was a time of the creation of numerous hospitals by private philanthropists, as Guy’s and the Middlesex and the refounding of St. Bartholomews. There were considerable limitations of knowledge of anatomy and physiology and infant mortality was rife. But this was an age of much developed humane treatment of the sick, even if the notorious “body-snatchers” ran a lucrative trade.
Walk St Bartholomew’s Hospital Museum
The museum illustrates the history of the hospital from its beginning in the 12thc: with extensive archival material and surgical and medical equipment the place of disease and diet is graphically illustrated through the centuries. The visit will include exterior views of the 18thc buildings and the famous Hogarth paintings on the Grand Staircase.
Lecture Virtue, Vice, Crime And Punishment
Crime, mugging, violence and theft were widespread in 18thc London with no established police force. Capital punishment was set for a variety of crimes, and hordes turned out in festive array for the Tyburn hangings. The ill-controlled London mob periodically indulged in widespread riot and disorder, and the Gordon Riots created great damage. But the great encourager of the virtuous life for working society was the non-conformist church and the heretic preaching to the masses of George Whitfield and John Wesley.
Visit Wesley House And Museum And Bunhill Fields
The history of Methodism is celebrated in the splendid museum attached to John Wesley’s own house and the current chapel. Overall we will see the impact of the non-conformist church in dealing with the social ills of the 18th century. Adjacent is the non-conformist cemetery of Bunhill Fields where we will see the graves and memorials of John Bunyan, Daniel Defoe, Susannah Wesley and William Blake.
Lecture Pleasure Gardens, Spas and Watering Places
Vauxhall and Ranelagh were the famous venues for a cultural evening out for the well-to-do, where supper boxes and music by Thomas Arne and Handel could be enjoyed in fashionable get-togethers. But the time also produced a plethora of spas where the healing waters could be imbibed by the middle classes in assembly rooms in places as Hampstead, Islington, Richmond and St. Pancras – all developed by shrewd entrepreneurship and marketing of the questionable medicinal powers of spa water.
Visit Handel House and Brook Street
The most prolific and talented of all the 18th century musicians, George Frederic Handel, lived throughout his working life in this Brook Street residence and we can see in this splendidly preserved house museum many elements of Handel’s life and visit the room where The Messiah was composed. And in so doing we will understand the enormous impact which Handel made on London’s opera, theatre and recitals.
Lecture Theatre, Opera, Music and Literature
The Age of Enlightenment and the Age of Elegance opened up many new waves of cultural experiences. This lecture will bring us David Garrick and his modernised theatre at Drury Lane, Italianate and Handelian opera at the King’s Opera House, and Gay’s Beggars Opera. We will follow the visits of Mozart and Haydn to London, and among writers explore the London works of such as Swift, Pope and Wordsworth and the founding of The Spectator by Addison and Steele.
Walk Spitalfields
Despite modern changes and wartime bombing much of the 18th century survives above all with the elegant house-workshops of the Huguenot silk workers. We will explore such areas as Artillery Lane, Folgate Street and Fournier Street. Radical changes were to come after the collapse of the silk industry with waves of immigrant settlers, Jews and South Asian in turn, and we will also see the landmarks of Jewish social welfare and of Brick Lane today in the most cosmopolitan area of all London.
