1 October ------‘C.F.A. Voysey – architect, artist and designer’
Dr Wendy Hitchmough, Curator, Charleston.

Wendy wrote the definitive book on Voysey. She has also published on the Arts and Crafts Garden. At the turn of the last century Voysey was the most influential designer in Britain. His work was known both in Europe and in the United States of America. In cities such as ours, Voysey’s influence can be seen in the white roughcast suburban houses of the nineteen twenties and thirties. Voysey also greatly influenced the Modernist movement.

29 October    ---  ‘Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain’
Rosemary Hill, Writer, historian and trustee of the Victorian Society

Pugin was a prodigy who at the age of fifteen was working for George IV at Windsor Castle. He then had a spell as an antique dealer and as a scenery painter at Covent Garden. After a series of dramas in his life he formed a vision of Gothic architecture which was romantic and strongly influenced by his deeply held religious beliefs. Before he was thirty he had designed twenty two churches and three cathedrals as well as other buildings.  Although he is perhaps best known for this work and his collaboration with Charles Barry on the Houses of Parliament, Pugin was the first architect-designer to design for the middle classes. His work included plant pots and wallpaper. In a short life Pugin had enormous influence, he died aged forty, insane. 

Note - In Brighton and Hove, most of the stained glass in St Pauls (West Street)(Panoramas here) is the most complete set of glass for an Anglican church designed by Pugin.It was made by John Hardman, at his glass workshop in Birmingham. The east window came first (1849), the rest installed by 1853. By then Pugin was suffering from ill health. It is not clear whether the great west window, with figures of saints in richly coloured glass is Pugin’s or Powell’s. St Paul’s encourages visitors. Its interior is a wonderful example of Victorian decoration.

3 December ---  'Classical Antiquity and the Georgian Garden'
Roger White, Architectural Historian, Contributing Editor to House and Gardens Magazine.
---------------Author of guidebooks and books.

From the early 17th century onwards Englishmen increasingly travelled to Italy, and especially Rome, whether to further their education, to start an art collection, or simply to have a good time, returning home full of their impressions of classical antiquity - or what they thought was antiquity. For the educated English gentleman of the 18th century, raised on the classics of Roman and Greek literature and fortified by the experiences of the Grand Tour, the evocation of antiquity, and of a lost Arcadia, was a preoccupation that frequently found expression in the garden. In creating the celebrated ‘templescapes’ of Georgian England, what did they think they were doing? What models were they emulating? And what relation, if any, did it all bear to reality?

21 January --- 'Prehistoric and Roman Brighton and Hove'
David Rudling, Centre for Continuing Education, University of Sussex

Regency antiquarians who were spending time in Brighton went to visit some of the ancient sites now within the boundaries of the City. Some walked what we now regard as very considerable distances to these sites which included several barrows near Wick now long gone and Hollingbury Hill Fort. The City has a long established archaeological society which has played a major part in helping to record the prehistoric and Roman sites in the City. David will explore what we now know about these periods.

4 February --- 'G.F. Bodley, J.D. Sedding and Henry Wilson, leading figures of the Gothic Revival and the Arts and Crafts Movement.'
Dr Paul M Snell, Education Curator, RIBA British Architectural Library

Dr Snell will look at the work of these architects in the City but set their work into its wider context. If you want to see examples of work by these architects - Bodley designed part of St Michael and All Angels.(Panoramas here) Wilson, greatly influenced by Sedding designed a lot of the rich decoration in St Bartholomews.(Panoramas here) Both are open to the public and give you a first-hand idea of what their work was like although churches were only part of what they did. Both churches will appreciate support in the form of donations. Other examples of their work will be mentioned in the talk.

4 March --- 'The City of Brighton and Hove in the 1820s: decade of transformation'
Dr Sue Berry, Editor, Victoria County History: City of Brighton and Hove, author of Georgian Brighton and many articles about the history of the City.

Between about 1818 and 1830, the City’s landscape underwent a transformation. Most of the changes took place around the perimeter of our unique Georgian heritage and added more to the richness of our urban landscape, Using maps and contemporary images we will explore some of the key developments, from piers to breweries and consider where the money to pay for all of this came from. Afterwards, Sue will run a show of many of the buildings which still stand along the front and can be seen on the diorama by Wilds which you can buy in the Pavilion bookshop for under £5.
If you have one please bring it with you!

1st April --- 'Britain’s Lost Cities'
Gavin Stamp, Architectural Historian and Writer and, for many years Chairman of the Twentieth Century Society.

We end the year with a current debate, the impact of planners, highway engineers, public bodies and their taste for grand schemes on cities. In his most recent book Britain’s Lost Cities (Aurum 2007), Gavin Stamp argues that the intimacy of the inner city has been lost to wide roads, roundabouts, gloomy pedestrian underpasses and other public projects the impact of which has generally been negative.

Gavin will do an overview. For a local flavour, some examples of plans for Brighton and Hove such as the major road that would have flattened North Laine and for which some purchasing was done and Carden’s plans for the front will be available for you to see as local examples of plans that did not happen here. The will be examples of parts of the old small scale townscapes left as large waste lands until the development of major projects such as the New England development and the Jubilee Library.

Venue: This is the talk after the AGM and it will be in the Royal Pavilion.

The start time for the AGM will be 7pm. We hope that the talk will start at 7.30pm

Entrance fee for talks: Members free on production of their Membership Card, Non-Members and Guests: £5 on arrival

THE LECTURE SERIES 2008 - 2009
All lectures on Wednesdays at 7.00pm, The Old Market, Upper Market Street, Hove.

AGM: April 1, 2009 at The Royal Pavilion.

Download a pdf of all the lectures here.