Bat & Ball Centre, start 10:00am, lunch included

Covent Garden has been a popular destination for over 1500 years. Our three lectures trace the story from its origins as a thriving Saxon port to Inigo Jones’
revolutionary ‘piazza' plan, and how the fruit and vegetable market was nearly demolished in the 1970s.

Dive into the demi-monde world of Georgian vice depicted by Hogarth, meet some extraordinary characters and open the pages of Harris's infamous "Covent Garden Ladies”. Finally, we will look at Covent Garden as a place of entertainment: the birth of the West End.

Bat & Ball Centre, Sevenoaks, start 10.00am, lunch included
 
Covent Garden has been a popular destination for over 1500 years.  Our three lectures trace the story from its origins as a thriving Saxon port to Inigo Jones’ revolutionary ‘piazza' plan, and how the fruit and vegetable market was nearly demolished in the 1970s.  We will take a deeper dive into the demi monde world of Georgian vice depicted by Hogarth, meet some extraordinary characters and open the pages of Harris's infamous "Covent Garden Ladies”. 

In our 'finale' lecture, we raise the curtain on Covent Garden as a place of entertainment: the birth of the West End, the piazza’s street performers over the centuries, meeting some of the stars who have graced the stages of London's 'theatreland'.  

Bat & Ball Centre, start 10:00am, lunch included

Lectures will focus on the original 7 members of the Pre- Raphaelite Brotherhood, their beginnings and style, their major works; moving on to their influence on other artists and the support of John Ruskin; then looking at later careers such as Rossetti's influence on William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones.