Landmarks of London
Mondays, January 27 through March 3 | 5:30-6:30 pm
Reception at 5:00 pm
Series price: $75/$100 Individual lectures, receptions: $15/$20 per lecture at the door
TOWER OF LONDON
Roger Smith
Monday, January 27
Palace and prison, defensive position and Crown Jewels repository, the Tower of London dates back nearly a millennium and reveals more stories of English history than perhaps any other landmark.
WESTMINSTER ABBEY
Roger Smith
Monday, February 3
The site of 40 coronations, eighteen royal burials, and almost as many royal weddings, Westminster Abbey is synonymous with the stories of England. This lecture chronicles many legendary events that have taken place within the Gothic walls of the Abbey, with Roger Smith as the guide.
KENSINGTON PALACE
Cheryl Ciucevich
Monday, February 10
Kensington Palace is the storybook birthplace and home to seemingly countless British royals and their extended families. Royal blogger (The Princess Palace) Cheryl Ciucevich regales her loyal audience with tales of privilege and power, all within the Palace’s walls.
ST. PAUL’S CATHEDRAL
Roger Smith
Monday, February 17
Following the devastating 1666 fire, old London had to be rebuilt by no less an architect and dreamer than Sir Christopher Wren. His signature creation was St. Paul’s. Roger Smith describes the ways in which Wren and his masterpiece remade the old city.
SIR JOHN SOANE’S MUSEUM
Tania Sammons
Monday, February 24
The eighteenth-century architect’s home is even more of a destination today than it was when Sir John Soane designed and lived in it. Tania Sammons, curator at the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum and the author of the blog, Tania Talks Museums, calls Soane’s “a museum’s museum.”
CRYSTAL PALACE
David Jones
Monday, March 3
No longer in existence, the Crystal Palace was Prince Albert’s mid-nineteenthcentury masterpiece of modern design and innovation in Victorian London. History aficionado David Jones reconstructs the edifice, recreates the many events which took place there, and recounts the Palace’s demise.