Past Events

Colonial Aspiration and Nineteenth Century Public Building in Australia

‘In touch with our modern civilization’: Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, in the Nineteenth and Twenty-first Centuries

Enviable Reputation: An Indian Engineer and the Construction of Victorian Bombay

This lecture will examine the role of one prominent Indian architect and engineer of the Victorian era, Khan Bahadur Muncherji Cowasji Murzban (1839-1917) concentrating on his official career to examine his meteoric rise and his role in the construction of Victorian Bombay.

Life on the Buffalo River – the Development of East London, South Africa

The river port town of East London, on the eastern seaboard of South Africa, was born in conflict in 1848, and after a long period of penury, finally commenced with more substantial development in the 1870s. The talk will provide an overview of the history and development of the town and present some of the Victorian era architecture and structures.

Eclecticism and Ornament in Malaya’s Vernacular Classicism

This lecture explores how the eclectic ornamental classicism of Victorian and Edwardian Britain came to influence Malaya’s own syncretic brand of classical architecture, resulting in a unique regional style.

Building Better Britain: Victorian Architecture in New Zealand, 1840 – 1901

The nineteenth-century colonisation of New Zealand was seen as an opportunity to establish a new society on the far side of the world that would perpetuate British culture while avoiding the poverty, overcrowding and industrial pollution that afflicted contemporary Britain.

The Architecture of ‘Greater Britain’: Style and Empire, c.1885-1915

This lecture will consider the role architecture played in responding to perceived notions of British decline in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Online Talk: The Work of Horace Jones, the Architect who Designed Tower Bridge

This talk will explore the life and work of Sir Horace Jones (1819-1887), chief architect to the City of London who designed many of its most famous buildings including Tower Bridge, Smithfield, Leadenhall and Billingsgate markets, and the Temple Bar memorial.

Online Talk: Death and the Victorians – A Dark Fascination

In Death and the Victorians, author Adrian Mackinder explores the dark side of the nineteenth century, when hunger for truth about what lies beyond the grave was matched only by the imagination and invention used to find it.

Online Lecture: The London Gasketeers: The Fight to Save Westminster’s Historic Gas Lamps, by Luke Honey

Luke Honey discusses the fight to save Westminster’s gas lamps, their historic importance and the story of gas lighting in London.

Autumn Online Lecture Series 2024: Crossing Boundaries-Victorian Art, Design and Architecture-7 talks for 6

The 2024 Autumn Lecture Series discusses how 19th century architects conceived of the decorative and fine arts as part of an architectural whole. Our seven expert speakers will boldly break down disciplinary boundaries in a discussion of the use of colour and texture across the whole range of Victorian design and analyses of the important roles played by mosaic, stained glass, embroidery and three-dimensional wall coverings.

Online Lecture: A W N Pugin – Victorian Tile Designer Par Excellence, by Hans van Lemmen

This lecture will look at the floor and wall tiles designed by the Gothic Revival architect A.W.N Pugin.

Online Lecture: Colour Revolution: Victorian Art, Fashion & Design, by Matthew Winterbottom

Matthew Winterbottom talks about the recent Ashmolean Exhibition Colour Revolution: Victorian Art, Fashion & Design that sought to challenge widely held perceptions that the Victorian age was dark and gloomy.

Online Lecture: ‘Fair and Beautiful to Behold’ – Ecclesiastical Embroideries, by Mary Schoeser

This lecture discusses the neo-Gothic in relation to textiles and wallpapers, which focuses on ecclesiastical embroideries in particular. The title, Fair and Beautiful to Behold is after a quotation from G.E. Street. The lecture spills into the Edwardian period to include a Pankhurst banner and Ann Macbeth frontal, to bring out the double meaning of ‘fair’ (in social/political terms).

Online Lecture: Owen Jones and the V&A, by Olivia Horsfall Turner

This talk will examine each of the projects that linked Victorian designer Owen Jones and the early V&A: his famous illustrated publication The Grammar of Ornament (1856), his decorative scheme for the so-called ‘Oriental Court’, and his relatively little-known book Examples of Chinese Ornament (1867).

Online Lecture: The Mosaics of Westminster Cathedral, by Peter Howell

This talk will examine the decorative interior of Westminster Cathedral, particularly the mosaics. J F Bentley intended that the interior should be covered in marble revetment and mosaics but he never had any mosaics installed. However, he approved the designs for the Holy Souls Chapel by his friend William Christian Symons.

Online Lecture: Innovations in the Art and Craft of Stained Glass in the 19th Century

The quest for materials that would evoke the chromatic and textural qualities of early medieval stained glass inspired the work of manufacturers, artists and architects during the Victorian era. This illustrated lecture examines how the art form evolved alongside new technical developments.

Online Lecture: Alfred Stevens: Master of Design, 1817-1875, by Teresa Sladen

When Alfred Stevens was waiting to hear who would finally be given the commission to design the Wellington Monument he said “They must give it to me. No one else knows anything about ornament”. What he meant by this is the subject of this lecture.

Online Lecture: Street Closure: A Discussion about Recent Visits to Buildings by G E Street

Join Neil Jackson as he examines the themes that have been raised from these visits.

Online Lecture: Victorian Colonial Short Stories 2: Dominions, Colonies & Protectorates

This lecture will survey short stories of colonial voyagers, squatters and settlers in Africa, Australia, British Malaya, Canada and New Zealand.

Online Lecture: London’s Lost Victorian Interiors, by Steven Brindle

Steven Brindle takes us through the wealth of Victorian interior design, most of which is long vanished.

Online Lecture: Victorian and Edwardian Women in Architecture, by Lynne Walker

Lynne Walker introduces a series of lectures that will extend our knowledge of women in architecture and the Victorian period.

Online Lecture: Rhoda and Agnes Garrett, ‘House Decorators’: the History of a Business, 1874–1905 by Elizabeth Crawford

Elizabeth Crawford discusses the first women to run a professional interior design business.

Online Lecture: A W N Pugin and Women by Rosemary Hill

Pugin’s biographer explores the role women played in both Pugin’s personal and professional life

Online Lecture: Victorian Chatelaine: Emily Meynell Ingram of Temple Newsam, by James Lomax

The lecture will explore the life and legacy of a major female architectural patron.

Online Talk: The Monk Sisters at St James the Less: Women and Architectural Patronage in Victorian Britain, by Alex Bremner

In this talk, Professor Alex Bremner will explore the role of Jane Emily and Penelope Anna Monk in the commissioning of St James the Less, Pimlico, and what, if any, impact their vision for the church had on G. E. Street’s design.

Online Lecture: Octavia Hill, John Ruskin, and Victorian Society, by William Whyte

William Whyte looks at her approach to social work as it was particularly shaped by her understanding of art and architecture.

Online Lecture: Clotilde Brewster: A Life in Perspective: the Journey of the First Female international Architect

Laura Fitzmaurice discusses the life of Clotilde Brewster (1874–1937) who became the first woman to work internationally as an architect.

Winter Online Lecture Series 2025: Victorian and Edwardian Women in Architecture – 7 talks for 6

The Winter Lecture Series 2025 explores Victorian and Edwardian’s women’s connections with architecture.

Online Lecture: Marion Mahony Griffin: ‘Stage 1’ of a remarkable career’, by Anna Rubbo

Ann Rubbo discusses the early career of Marion Mahony Griffin who worked in the USA, Australia and India.

Online Lecture: The London Dustheap – Sifting through the Victorian Imagination

London’s dustheaps were mountainous. For centuries they shaped the city’s skyline and spoke of the societies and industries that made them. This lecture examines the (literal) rise and fall of these lost landscapes, their associated industries and the people who made them.

Online Lecture: Restoring the Doulton’s Carrara Ware Façade at Findlater’s Corner

This talk, by Benedict O’ Looney, looks at the restoration of the Beaux Arts shop at Findlater’s Corner at London Bridge.

Online Lecture and in person: The Magnetic Margot Gayle , by Joshua Mardell

This lecture will (re-)introduce the American metallurgist, politician and preservationist Margot Gayle (1908-2008), who co-founded the Victorian Society in America on the advice of Nikolaus Pevsner in 1966, and established the Friends of Cast-Iron Architecture in 1970.

Online Lecture: The Victorian Society Top Ten Endangered Buildings 2025

Join our caseworkers and Director as we discuss this year’s top ten endangered buildings and structures.

Online Lecture: From Vernacular to Palatial: the Evolution of the Victorian Hotel

Discover the history of the Victorian hotel and how they adapted from the Victorian age to a time of new technology.

CANCELLED: Online Lecture: Understanding the Past, Present and Future of Smithfield, by Tom Butler

This event has been cancelled.

Online Lecture: Benjamin Ferrey and the Romanesque Revival: ‘a lamentable accident’? by Harry Spain

This talk by Harry Spain will explore Ferrey’s role in the short-lived Romanesque Revival.

Online Lecture: Lady Charlotte Schreiber: Extraordinary Art Collector by Caroline McCaffrey-Howarth

Discover the life of Lady Charlotte Schreiber in this online talk by Caroline McCaffrey-Howarth.

Autumn Online Lecture Series 2025: Hot Off The Press: Victorians in the Bookshops – 7 talks for 6

Our autumn lecture series celebrates the remarkable recent flourishing of publications on Victorian architecture and related topics.

Online Lecture: Halsey Ricardo: A Life in Arts and Crafts by Mark Bertram

Halsey Ricardo (1854–1928) is a well known Arts and Crafts figure thanks to his business partnership with William De Morgan.

Online Lecture: Clumber Park: A Queer Inheritance by Michael Hall

Explore the story of the Clumber Park in this talk by Michael Hall

Online Lecture: Matthew Digby Wyatt by Robert Thorne

The polymath Wyatt – architect, administrator, designer, writer and connoisseur – was project manager to the Great Exhibition of 1851.

Online Lecture: The Aesthetic Movement in Five English Interiors by Steven Brindle

This talk will examine five celebrated interiors of the Aesthetic Movement that involved Edward Burne-Jones and Morris & Co.

Online Lecture: Toronto Edwardian: Frank Darling, Architect of Canada’s Imperial Age by David Winterton

Frank Darling (1850–1923), was employed in the office of George Edmund Street and became a leading exponent of Edwardian Baroque in Toronto.

Online Lecture: EW Godwin: Architecture into Art by Aileen Reid

Although his fame today rests on his distinguished Aesthetic Movement furniture, E.W. Godwin (1833–86) styled himself ‘architect’.

Online Lecture: Mapping Dorset’s Victorian and Edwardian Buildings by Michael Hill

This talk reveals the Victorian and Edwardian architectural gems of Dorset.

Spring Online Lecture Series 2026: Heroines and Heroes of the Arts and Crafts Movement – 7 talks for 6

Our speakers will be drawing on a large amount of new research, much of which is highlighting the often-neglected role played by women.

Spring Online Lecture Series 2026 1: Philip Webb by Max Donnelly

Max Donnelly will discuss Phillip Webb’s works as a designer of domestic interiors.