There are many organisations offering lectures and talks, many of which are online or hybrid events, but an increasing number are also now being advertised as face-to-face events. Some of the key delivery organisations are listed below.
An updated version of our monthly Lectures Calendar is now available and lists some of the lectures we are aware of - both online and in-person. Lectures are listed in date order and links are provided to the appropriate delivery organisation, with details about each lecture and how to book a place.
THE GARDENS TRUST
On Tuesday, 5 November The Gardens Trust will began their third series of five lectures on The History of Gardens, the five specific topics being 1. Early Landscape Gardens; 2. Poetry and Prose; 3. Lancelot Brown: Assessing the 'Capabilities'; 4. Chinoiserie: Tea, Trade Routes and a Taste for the 'Exotic'; and 5. Humphry Repton: From Picturesque provocateur to Regency Ornamentalist. As with previous series, tickets can be booked for all five lectures or just ndividual lectures.
Another new weekly 5-lecture series, entitled Gardens and the Written Word will start on Wednesday 2 October. Featuring 5 different lecturers, the writings of Shakespeare, Jane Loudon, Jane Austen, and Marcel Proust in relation to gardens will be explored as well as those of various travel writers.
Consult our Lectures Calendar for details and links to booking.
LONDON PARKS and GARDENS (LPG)
London Parks and Gardens' winter lecture series 2024-2025 is now open for booking on the London Parks and Gardens website. Topics include;
OCTOBER: The Tradescants: 17th Century Gardeners to the Aristocracy and Royalty, Planthunters and Nurserymen; NOVEMBER: Lost Gardens of London; DECEMBER: Rewinding Arcadia: 21st Century solutions to manage increasing flood risk along the river Thames; JANUARY: Behind the Privet Hedge: Richard Sudell, the Suburban Garden and the Beautification of Britain; FEBRUARY: Creating Hiding Places and Landscapes for Animals at the Royal Zoological Society; and MARCH: Great Estates: Models for Modern Placemaking. Lectures in November, January and March will take place in person at The Garden Museum, Lambeth (as well as online); whilst all other lectures will be online only.
THE GARDEN MUSEUM
~ none current ~
THE INSTITUTE OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON: History of Gardens and Landscapes SEMINARS
The Autumn Term programme entitled An Open Book: Gardens in Literature and Letters continues on Thursday 10 October from 18.00 -19.30 with an online seminar when the speaker will be Rebecca Armstrong (St Hilda’s College, University of Oxford) on A Roman’s Garden of Verses: Beauty, Utility, and the Compromises of Cultivation. Book here.
On Thursday 24 October from 18.00 -19.30 the seminar will be a hybrid event. The speaker will be India Cole (Queen Mary University of London and Oxford Botanic Garden) on the topic: Sowing the Seeds of Exchange: The Duchess of Beaufort’s Botanical Networks. Book here.
All seminars take place on Thursdays from 18.00 and are delivered as a mixture of Hybrid and Zoom events. Lectures are free but BOOKING IS ESSENTIAL.
COUNTY GARDEN TRUSTS
In additon to these there are many County Gardens Trusts and other institutions offering occasional lectures: these will be found in our Lectures Calendar above which shows all the lectures BGHG is aware of from a wide variety of sources.. Other organisations offering occasional or regular lectures and talks include The Georgian Group, The Victorian Society and the Linnean Society. Whilst some lectures will be restricted to their members, others will be open to all.