Winter Lecture Series 2011-12

Monday 10 October - Victoria Park: Old Design, New Uses

Sally Prothero
Following concern about the lack of public open space in expanding areas of the capital, Victoria Park, designed by James Pennethorne, was laid out in the 1840s as London's first public park. Sally Prothero of LDA Design will talk about their masterplan for the park's restoration and development.

Monday 14 November - London's Street Trees

Hazel Conway
Dr Conway, whose books on public parks have reached a wide audience, will turn her attention to the planting of street trees, particularly in London.

Monday 12 December - Fields in Trust: King George's Fields and Queen Elizabeth II Fields in London

Alison Moore-Gwyn
A scheme for the creation of public playing fields, set up under the auspices of George V, was completed as a memorial to him after his death in 1936. A similar programme will be inaugurated in 2012 to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. Both are administered by Fields in Trust (the National Playing Fields Association), whose Chief Executive is Alison Moore-Gwyn.

Monday 9 January 2012 - Gardens of Metro-Land

Sophie Seifalian
'Metro-Land' was the creation of the Metropolitan Railway's publicity department to promote its lines running north-west from London. Between the Wars, as suburban house-building in Metro-Land boomed, the dream of a new home in healthy rural surroundings became a reality. Front and back gardens and facilities for tennis and golf were important features of this seductive vision.

Monday 13 February - London's Olympic Games

Martin Polley
The story of the Olympic Games in Britain goes back much further than is usually appreciated. Dr Polley, author of a forthcoming book on the subject for English Heritage, will reveal the history of two previous London Games, their sites and predecessors.

Monday 12 March - A Gothic Garden in Kentish Town

Michael Symes
Dr William Stukeley (1687-1765), antiquarian and eccentric, created a number of gardens over a peripatetic life. His last was in Kentish Town, at the time a village north of London. Long vanished under suburbia, the garden was a curious attempt to infuse a small area with Gothic feeling.

Monday 16 April - Pitzhanger Manor and Walpole Park

Sarah Couch
The architect Sir John Soane owned not only a celebrated house in Lincoln's Inn Fields but also between 1800 and 1810 an estate in Ealing, including a large garden designed by John Haverfield. Now a public park, its restoration has been planned by Ealing Borough Council. Sarah Couch is the historic landscape consultant for the scheme, which has now received HLF funding.