Malcolm Lawrenson

London Bridged – 3,500 Years of Crossing the Thames

Tuesday 19th March 2024 at 10.45am

Lecturer: Charlie Forman

People were bridging the Thames in the Bronze Age - 1,500 years before the Romans built London Bridge. The last 200 years have seen over 50 new crossings over and under the river. Some are great feats of engineering, some are architecturally elegant. Every crossover changes the city’s genetic code.

Posted by Malcolm Lawrenson in Archived lectures

Discovering MacDonald Gill: Artist and Mapmaker

Covent Garden Piazza

Tuesday 18th June 2024 at 10.45am

Lecturer: Caroline Walker

MacDonald Gill, brother of the sculptor Eric Gill, was an architect, illustrator, graphic designer and letterer, best known for his eye-catching pictorial map posters for London Underground and the Empire Marketing Board. He created beautiful painted map panels for buildings, magnificent murals for churches and Cunard liners as well as the alphabet and regimental badges for the Imperial War Graves Commission.

Posted by Malcolm Lawrenson in Archived lectures

Murder, Mystery, and Paint – the Story of Walter Sickert

London Underground Design

Tuesday 15th October 2024 at 10.45am

Lecturer: Michael Howard

The well-known crime writer Patricia Cornwell has claimed that the celebrated artist Walter Sickert was responsible for the murders attributed to the infamous Jack the Ripper. This lecture will attempt to untangle the truth of this claim following a trail of murder, mystery, mayhem and paint. Was this much-loved, colourful and enigmatic painter Jack the Ripper – or not?

Posted by Malcolm Lawrenson in Archived lectures

Burton Constable, the House and its People

History of Wine

Tuesday 19th November 2024 at 10.45am

Lecturer: Jenny Scruton

Burton Constable Hall is a large Elizabethan country house set in a park designed by Capability Brown. With its 18th & 19th century interiors and a remarkable C18th ‘cabinet of curiosities’, the rooms at Burton Constable are filled with spectacular collections that survive from when the Hall was the Constable family home.

Posted by Malcolm Lawrenson in Archived lectures

How to ‘Read’ the English Country Church: The Tudors to the Commonwealth

Caravaggio painting

Tuesday 21st January 2025 at 10.45am

Lecturer: Rev'd Dr Nicholas Henderson

A walk in the country; you come upon the typical village country church. This lecture will help you look at the architecture inside and out, the church furniture, those mysterious nooks and crannies, high and low. How and why did it all come to look this way? This is a fascinating journey through English history unravelled before your eyes. “I can’t make you experts” says Nicholas Henderson, “but I can teach you enough to amaze your friends on that day in the countryside.”

Posted by Malcolm Lawrenson in Past Lectures

George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham

Alcott sisters

Tuesday 18th February 2025 at 10.45am

Lecturer: Lucy Hughes-Hallett

George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, was the favourite of King James I - who addressed him as ‘my sweet child and wife’ - and subsequently chief minister to King Charles I. Buckingham was a beauty, and he surrounded himself with beautiful things. He enjoyed exquisite clothes, like the fabulous white silk suit encrusted with diamonds that he wore to visit the Queen of France. He was a superb dancer. When he cut capers during a court masque King James startled visiting ambassadors by shouting out ‘By God, George, I love you!’

Posted by Malcolm Lawrenson in Past Lectures

Music in Art

English garden

Tuesday 18th March 2025 at 10.45am

Lecturer: Sophie Matthews

Music in Art looks at how the depiction of musical instruments from the Middle Ages to the 18th century evolves, focusing on instruments that Sophie plays, so as well as looking at images by artists such as Bruegel, Bosch and Hogarth she gives musical demonstrations on replicas of the instruments depicted

Posted by Malcolm Lawrenson in Past Lectures

The Glories of Ancient Rome

Lutyens - Jekyll

Tuesday 15th July 2025 at 10.45am BUT meeting starts at 10.30am (AGM)

Lecturer: Paul Roberts

MARY GLEN MEMORIAL LECTURE

It is sometimes hard to see beyond the ruins of today, so using masterpieces of Roman art and reconstructions and with the Emperors as our guides, we’ll go on a journey through Rome in its golden prime: from the splendid civic hubs of the great Imperial Forums to the beautiful, soaring temples of the gods, the dazzling gleam of marble and mosaic in the great public baths and the roar of the crowds at the Circus Maximus and the Colosseum.

Posted by Malcolm Lawrenson in Past Lectures

Art, Faith and Empire: The Golden Age of Spanish Art

Lutyens - Jekyll

Tuesday 16th September 2025 at 10.45am

Lecturer: Isabelle Kent

In the 16th and 17th centuries, Spain rose as the great superpower with an empire spanning the globe. This vast wealth, alongside the renewed catholic fervour of the counter reformation, kick-started the Spanish siglo d’oro – literally the century of gold - the great flourishing of painting, sculpture, literature, and music. This lecture explores this period, looking at the historical moment and its vast array of art.

Posted by Malcolm Lawrenson in Past Lectures

George Stubbs, the English Leonardo

Lutyens - Jekyll

Tuesday 21st October 2025 at 10.45am

Lecturer: Christopher Garibaldi

2024 marked the 300th anniversary of the birth of George Stubbs and North Lincolnshire celebrated his connection with the region. Between 1756 and 1758, under the patronage of Sir John Nelthorpe, Stubbs spent 18 months in Horkstow dissecting and studying horses which led to the publication of ‘The Anatomy of the Horse’ in 1766. His legacy and influence are still an inspiration to today’s artists. There were further exhibitions and events at Normanby Hall and Scawby Hall, home of the Nelthorpe family.

Posted by Malcolm Lawrenson in Past Lectures