Term 1
Lecture The growth of Victorian London
From 2 to 6 million in 2 generations. As the centre of world commerce and finance in the 19th century, London acted as a magnet to those seeking employment or fortune or those who failed to do so. The imperial city rapidly spread outwards, creating an extensive suburban area. It brought enormous problems of modernising the infrastructure in public services, which until then had been in the hands of local parishes.
Walk Victorian gentrification in Tyburnia
The walk will explore the area west of Marble Arch and Edgware Road, behind the Bayswater Road; this developed into a fashionable residential district openly laid out into squares, crescents and avenues, in which Connaught Square and Sussex Gardens are the focus.
Lecture The Great Exhibition 1851
The first world exhibition was held in Hyde Park displaying “the arts and industries of all nations”. This lecture will explore the Crystal Palace, London’s first modern building, the range of art, design and invention displayed within it and its educational theme, which attracted millions and which was perpetuated in the South Kensington cultural institutions.
Walk Bedford Park: the garden suburb of Norman Shaw 1875
North of Turnham Green, this was London’s first purpose-designed and planned middle class suburb. The eminent architect-planner Norman Shaw conceived and co-ordinated a picturesque Queen Anne rural style with tree-lined streets centred on St. Michael’s church. All this survives for our exploration.
Lecture Poverty, philanthropy and reform
Charles Dickens illustrates the world of poverty and casual employment, abject housing and disease in the ghettos of East and South London and the inner city, literally separated from the comfortable classes elsewhere. Organised public welfare did not emerge until the end of the century: pioneering philanthropists, Edwin Chadwick, Lord Shaftesbury, Angela Buirdett-Coutts, George Peabody and the Salvation Army heroically led the way.
Walk Bethnal Green and the Museum of Childhood
Bethnal Green, in Victorian times, was the centre of deprivation. Much of the area has been modernised after wartime bombing, but the core of the original village survives. Our tour will include Soane’s church of St John, the fascinating Museum of Childhood, and surviving houses leading to Victoria Park, from 1845 the first planned open amenity for the “labouring classes“.
Lecture The great architects and planners of the Victorian era
From the Houses of Parliament and the extensive development of Belgravia, the work of utstanding Victorian architects pervades the London scene. Not only were two contrasting styles, the Gothick and the classical, ever present, but many other eclectic designs throng the London scene bringing in such masterpieces as St Pancras station and hotel, the Prudential Assurance building & the Natural History Museum.
Visit Natural History Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum
This visit will explore the neighbouring “cathedrals of culture” primarily from an architectural perspective and as monuments to house collections at the heart of Victorian education. At the Victoria and Albert Museum we will specifically visit the gallery dedicated to Victorian design in London.
Term 2
Lecture The desperate need for public transport
As London spread, distances between work and residence grew longer. In 1830 only the wealthy could afford the transport of the stage coach: all others walked. The whole economy of the city and the nation depended on fast mobility at an affordable rate. This lecture will follow the evolution of the horse-drawn omnibus, the coming of the railways, the first underground railway in the world, and the horse-tram.
Visit Victorian Life at the Museum of London
The newly-installed galleries of modern London illustrate at first hand all aspects of life in Victorian London from everyday objects to reinstated buildings.
Lecture Fires, plots, demonstrations, disasters and crime
Social instability in Victorian London was a regular experience ranging from the Chartist demonstrations and "Bloody Sunday" at Trafalgar Square to many strikes e.g. the dockers and the match girls. Major fires destroyed the Houses of Parliament and the Armoury at the Tower, while republican Irish resorted to bombing and assassination. Hundreds were drowned in the sinking of the “Princess Alice” and the new Metropolitan Police and Fire Brigade faced continuous challenges.
Walk Westminster Cathedral, Victoria and Belgravia
Bentley’s Byzantine Roman Catholic Cathedral is one of the greatest of all Victorian buildings with its spectacular exterior and dramatic interior. From our visit there we will explore adjacent Victoria, particularly the station and its grand hotel together with the famous music hall, Victoria Palace. Finally we will enter the neighbouring part of Belgravia to see the genius of Thomas Cubitt at Eaton and Chester Squares.
Lecture Shopping, markets and the retail trade: from Whiteley’s and Barkers to Sainsburys and Harrods
The burgeoning middle classes required an inexpensive consumerism through affordable shops. Beginning with the major wholesale markets (Covent Garden, Billingsgate etc) we will follow the retail outlets of such small scale entrepreneurs as Messrs. Barker, Ponting, Whiteley and Harrod: the development from general store to the ultimate department store, Selfridges, on the grand scale is a very Victorian example of investment capitalism.
Walk Limehouse
The great Victorian docks developed the waterfront of erstwhile villages into the grand conurbation of Docklands. Since the closure of the docks in the 1960s much rehabilitation has taken place, while retaining many of the old buildings. Limehouse retains atmosphere along the river front with its warehouses, the junction of the Thames and the canal at the Regents Canal Dock, and Nicholas Hawksmoor’s St. Anne’s church (1730), one of his three great East End churches.
Lecture Days and evenings out: exhibitions, shows and entertainment
With money and time to spend the middle classes enjoyed an unlimited range of entertainment. This lecture will show the pleasure gardens of Vauxhall and Cremorne, Astley’s amphitheatre and the Zoological Gardens, the panoramas and dioramas, the displays at the Egyptian Hall, the building of the Albert Hall, music, theatre and that most working class outlet, the music hall.
Walk Kennington in Georgian and Victorian times
Kennington is one of the lesser known inner suburbs of 18th and 19th c. London as one races through on the road to Brighton. The overall theme of this walk is the superb range of Georgian terraced housing and Victorian developments particularly along Kennington Park Road, Cleaver Square and Kennington Park. Significantly the walk begins with the very first station of the electrified underground Tube and ends with the imaginatively designed post-war Brandon Estate.
