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Click here for future lectures

14 October 2026Paint the Town: The Story Behind the Spray
09 September 2026Disorder Restored : the radical side of Agatha Christie
08 July 2026Edward Burne-Jones - legend of the Briar Rose
10 June 2026Gilbert and Sullivan and the Birth of English Operetta
13 May 2026A Portrait of Jewels: Following missing treasures through canvas
08 April 2026Inspired by Stonehenge
11 March 2026Finest Ship of the Line: How Titanic changed the World
11 February 2026George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham
14 January 2026The Golden Age of British Comedy
10 December 2025Covent Garden: The Theatres Royal and the Birth of Theatreland
12 November 2025Tintoretto ‘il furioso’: Painter for the People
08 October 2025Great English Mansions - made in America
10 September 2025Girls Behaving Badly: Jane Austen's Wicked Women
09 July 2025Casablanca: The Making of a Legend
11 June 2025History of Cartoons: from William Hogarth to Private Eye
14 May 2025The Green Man in English Churches
09 April 2025The Jurassic World of Mary Anning
12 March 2025Bach and Handel - Separated at Birth
12 February 2025Renaissance Marriage and Mythology
08 January 2025Monopoly The Game you know so well - or do you?
11 December 2024Dingley Dell to “A Christmas Carol”: Charles Dickens and Christmas
13 November 2024How Napier became the Art Deco Capital of the World
09 October 2024Great Railway Stations – Evoking the Spirit of Romance and Adventure
11 September 2024The Wallace Collection's Rembrandts
10 July 2024Catherine the Great: the World’s Greatest Collector
12 June 2024Bringing India to Britain
08 May 2024Three Great Families and their Gardens
10 April 2024A Private Palace of Art - Frederic Leighton's Studio House
13 March 2024Behind the Scenes at the National Gallery
14 February 2024Madonnas and Miracles: The Golden Age of Sienese Paintings
10 January 2024Tite Street - home to artists and eccentrics
13 December 2023From Tchaikovsky to Tin Pan Alley
08 November 2023Through a Glass Darkly: Vermeer and the Camera Obscura
11 October 2023National Treasures
13 September 2023For Their Majesties' Pleasure: Treasures from the Royal Library at Windsor Castle
12 July 2023A Carpet Ride to Khiva: Exploring the Revival of 15th Century Timurid Carpet Designs
14 June 2023Vauxhall Revisited: London’s Pleasure Gardens, 1660-1877
10 May 2023Fabergé: Objects of Desire
12 April 2023The Healing Power of Plants
08 March 2023Simplicity & Splendour: Arts and Crafts Interiors
08 February 2023The Dust Bowl through the Lens of a Photographer
11 January 2023'As if by Magic': Secrets of Turner’s Watercolour Technique
14 December 2022Baroque on a Roll: Classical Music in the Modern Media
09 November 2022The Greatest Art Patron in the World: Rudolph II and his Kunstkammern
12 October 2022Writers and Relics: A Brief History of Literary Tourism
14 September 2022A Photographic Odyssey: Shackleton’s Endurance Expedition on Camera
13 July 2022The Housekeepers Tale
25 June 202225th Anniversary Lunch and Lecture The Glory of Venice (Ticketed event)
08 June 2022Dame Laura Knight
11 May 2022Wonders of the Roman Empire - Off Limit
13 April 2022Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts
09 March 2022Giles; His Life, Times and Cartoons
23 February 2022Virtual Tour of Rome
09 February 2022The Queen of Instruments: The Lute Within Old Masters
12 January 2022The Forensic Eye: How to Find your Inner Connoisseur
08 December 2021Children’s Book Illustrations
10 November 2021British Studio Pottery: A Concise History
13 October 2021Mars and The Muses: The Renaissance Art of Armour
08 September 2021Undressing Antiques
14 July 2021Played in London: Charting the Heritage of a City at Play
09 June 2021Hand Grenades like Cartier Clips: Lee Miller’s Life and Work in Fashion A talk on Lee Miller by her son,
12 May 2021The Collections of Napoleon and Josephine at the Chateau de Malmaison
22 April 2021Virtual Tour of British Museum
14 April 2021Caravaggio: Murderer or Genius?
25 March 2021Virtual Tour of Venice
10 March 2021Gold of the Gods: Treasures of South America and the search for El Dorado
25 February 2021Virtual Walk - Lisbon and Belem
10 February 2021Turner v Constable: The Great British Paint-off
28 January 2021One Westminster Six Palaces Walk
13 January 2021The World’s Most Expensive Art
09 December 2020"Gilt and Gorgeousness" – A Celebration of the 200th Anniversary of King George IV’s Accession to the throne
26 November 2020Virtual Walking Tour of Bath
11 November 2020The Bed in Art: From Titian to Emin
14 October 2020The Borgias, the Most Infamous Family in History?
09 September 2020Fashion, Fury and Feminism. Women's Fight for Change
12 August 2020Opera, the Melting Pot of Culture
29 July 2020Virtual Walk through the East End
08 July 2020Debo; Cavendish, Duchess and Housewife
10 June 2020Quiz Night
27 May 2020The Power of Photography
13 May 2020Wonders of the Roman Empire - Off Limit
08 April 2020Gold of the Gods. Treasures of South America and Eldorado
11 March 2020An Illustrated Dickens
12 February 2020Raphael: A Master in the Making
08 January 2020Rene Lalique: Master of Art Nouveau Jewellery and Art Deco Glass
11 December 2019It's not just Tchaikovsky
13 November 2019Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves
09 October 2019Cordoba and Beyond
11 September 2019Modern Art through a Cartoonist Eye
10 July 2019Artists and Espionage
12 June 2019Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and the Artists
08 May 2019Tapestry - the ultimate wall decoration
10 April 2019Klimt and the Austrian Succession: A Kiss for All the World
13 March 2019Temples, Tombs and Treasures: in search of the Queen of Sheba
13 February 2019The Role of the Arts in the Cycle of Crime, Prison and Re-offending
09 January 2019Design for Wearing: Jewellery in the 20th Century
12 December 2018That pretty German toy
14 November 2018Collecting on the Grand Tour
10 October 2018Chinese Imperial Court Costume
12 September 2018Aboriginal Art
11 July 2018Lawrence of Arabia - Excavating the legend
13 June 2018Thomas Heatherwick - The Leonardo de Vinci of our times
09 May 2018Foreigners in London 1520 to 1677: The artists who changed the course of British Art.
11 April 2018Benin Bronzes: Masterpieces of African Art
14 March 2018The Making of Assisi
14 February 2018The Silver Thread: Silver Filigree and traditional arts in Kosovo
10 January 2018Pots & Frocks - the world of Grayson Perry
07 January 201850th Anniversary Lecture - Loving Vincent
13 December 2017Norman Rockwell's Christmas Wish
08 November 2017What really happened on Easter Island
11 October 2017The Whole Art of the Book
13 September 2017How women lived, loved and died in Paris 1939-1949
12 July 2017The Huguenot Silk Weavers of Spitalfields
14 June 2017The Day Parliament Burned Down
10 May 2017The Art of the Poster
12 April 2017Not just Smoke and Mirrors - The Magical Art of Camouflage in Warfare
08 April 2017Anniversary Lunch - Punch and Judy
08 March 2017Art Inspired by Wine
08 February 2017Vivaldi in Venice
11 January 2017The Art and Architecture of the Khmer Empire
14 December 2016The Corked Conjurer: comedy, contempt and credulity in Georgian England
09 November 2016Legends of Czech Glass
12 October 2016Beautiful, Beastly, Bizarre: the Art of Hieronymus Bosch
14 September 2016 Contemporary Artists - Antony Gormley - Anish Kapoor
13 July 2016Restoration Dramas: How some of Britain’s best-loved buildings were saved from destruction
08 June 2016The Elgin Marbles
11 May 2016The Shakers: Their Beliefs, Architecture and Artefacts
13 April 2016It Will Never Show - Designing historical costumes for film and television
09 March 2016Everything Very Fine
10 February 2016The Drama behind the Taj Mahal: The Life and Times of the Indian Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan
13 January 2016The Secret Language of Sacred Spaces: religious architecture of the world
18 December 2015Carols by Candlelight
09 December 2015GRAND FATHER FROST AND OLD NEW YEAR. CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS IN RUSSIA
11 November 2015PAULA REGO—TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED
14 October 2015MOZART’S ‘COSI’ A COMIC OPERA?
09 September 2015PHOTOGRAPHY AS FINE ART
08 July 2015Creating an art Exhibition
10 June 2015HENRY MOORE—ENGLAND’S GREATEST SCULPTOR
13 May 2015ETHIOPIA: 3000 YEARS OF HISTORY, ART AND ARCHITECTURE
08 April 2015LUTYENS ABROAD
11 March 2015INN SIGNIA
11 February 2015ALLUSIVE ARTIST – BANKSY AND STREET ART IN THE CONTEXT OF UNDERSTANDING MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ART
14 January 2015BLOOD ROSES AND ELEPHANTS: THE ART AND ARCHITECTURE OF ST. ALBANS ABBEY
10 December 2014‘Singe we Yule’
12 November 2014Wanderings amongst the Nomadic Tribes of Iran & Afghanistan
08 October 2014Gilded Glories – The Fascinating History of Gilded Decoration
10 September 2014From Leonardo to You – the Story of Art and Science
09 July 2014Theatrical Personalities: Garrick, Siddons, Kean and Irving
11 June 2014The Splendours of the City Churches
14 May 2014Cave paintings and pre-historic carvings, can we really call them art?
09 April 2014The city of Kyoto & the cult of beauty
12 March 2014Life and times of sundials
12 February 2014Pearls- The tears of an oyster.
08 January 2014The history of the Skyscraper
11 December 2013Three Wise Men: Gold, frankincense and myrrh- the traditions of the Magi
13 November 2013Treasures and Curiosities from the Royal Library, Windsor Castle
09 October 2013Vermeer’s Shadow: Han Van Meegeren, master forger
11 September 2013The Genius of Antonio Stradivari
10 July 2013Basingstoke and its Contribution to World Culture
12 June 2013English Art Deco Ceramics: Clarice Cliff, Susie Cooper and Ruskin
08 May 2013'What an Eye': The Art of Claude Monet
10 April 2013Emile Galle and The Nancy School of Art Nouveau
13 March 2013The New Ashmolean Museum and its Classical Collection
13 February 2013That Woman Cancelled New Lecture: Servant, Mistress, Scoundrel, Princess: secret stories of Kensington Palace
09 January 2013'The Sincerest Form of Flattery' - great images and those who borrow them
12 December 2012Christmas Dinner Edward I to Edward VII
14 November 2012Gwen and Augustus John - two great opposites
10 October 2012The Splendour of Hampton Court Palace - including restoration and gardens
12 September 2012The Boy Who Bit Picasso
11 July 2012Everyone Stops For Tea! A Social History of Tea drinking
13 June 2012The Giants of High Tech Architecture: Roger, Foster and Grimshaw
09 May 2012John Opei, The Cornish Wonder
11 April 2012Painters of Myths and Dreams: England’s Late Pre Raphaelites
14 March 2012Dickens Revisited 1812-2010
08 February 2012Smallhythe Place and Other Hidden Gems: The Intimate Jewels of Dame Ellen Terry
11 January 2012Cleopatra - Femme Fatale of Antiquity
14 December 2011Merrily on High: The History of the English Christmas Carol
25 November 2011East Surrey Area Study Morning - Symphonies in Colour:Byzantine and Italian Mosaics
09 November 2011The Colour Red - It's Sacred and Secular Meaning
12 October 2011Annual General Meeting at 7.30 pm followed by Art and the F Word:Feminism
14 September 2011Antoni Gaudi
13 July 2011The Well Dressed Gentleman; Male Sartorial Elegance (17th -20thc)
08 June 2011A Family Affair - Florence and the House of Medici
11 May 2011Sir Thomas Brock - London's Forgotten Sculptor
13 April 2011The Arts and Crafts of Mexico, Past and Present
09 March 2011The Splendour of Venetian Landscapes: Palladio, Vivaldi, Carlo Scarpa
09 February 2011History of the River Thames
12 January 2011Omai, the Exotic and Joshua Reynolds
08 December 2010The Art of Deception
10 November 2010The Sacred Art of Tibet
13 October 2010Annual General Meeting followed by Silver and Social Customs
08 September 2010Max The Incomparable
14 July 2010VELAZQUEZ – PRINCE OF PAINTERS
12 May 2010THE RISE OF ENGLISH LEAD CRYSTAL
14 April 2010BENEATH THE CITY STREETS
10 March 2010A very Important Brotherhood (Pre Raphaelites)
10 February 2010Who Wrote Shakespeare?
13 January 2010MURDER SEX AND MAYHEM IN ENGLISH CHURCHES
09 December 2009NOEL COWARD
11 November 2009BLOOD AND SAWDUST TO LYCRA
09 September 2009TENNIS, CRICKET and FOOTBALL IN ART FROM THE MEDIAEVAL TOURNAMENT ONWARDS
16 July 2009STANLEY SPENCER GALLERY, COOKHAM AND CLIVEDEN
08 July 2009EARLY FLEMISH PORTRAITS
10 June 2009TURNER
13 May 2009MUSIC ON THE GRAND TOUR
08 April 2009ERIC GILL: SCULPTOR
11 March 2009PHOTOGRAPHY AS FINE ART
11 February 2009THE CULTURE OF IMPERIAL RUSSIA
14 January 2009HAVE YOU GOOD TASTE?

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Paint the Town: The Story Behind the Spray Roger Mendham Wednesday 14 October 2026

Street art has evolved from its roots in American graffiti to becoming a global art movement. From portraiture to abstract expressionism, many of the major conventional genres are included in street art.

Prepare to be amazed!

This lecture is preceeded by the AGM