A New Season Of Spitalfields Talks

Starting in 2013, Spitalfields Life Books published 15 books over 6 years until the pandemic shut us down. Now we are ready to begin again and we are inspired by a string of new titles that we have ready to publish. We are crowdfunding to raise enough to cover the production of our next 3 books, then income from sales of these will permit us to continue and publish more.

CLICK HERE TO VISIT OUR CROWDFUND PAGE AND CONTRIBUTE

After the popular success of the first season, I have curated another series of eight monthly talks at the Hanbury Hall on subjects of local interest in collaboration with the Spitalfields Society. I am giving an illustrated lecture on the subject of East End Vernacular painting to start the season. The talks take place on the first Tuesday of each month at 7pm, commencing in October and running through the winter to deliver us to next spring.

Tickets are £10 and you can book through the links below. All talks will be accompanied by a bar which opens at 6:30pm and we look forward to welcoming you to this popular social event in Spitalfields. The Hanbury Hall was built as a Huguenot chapel in 1740 as ‘La Patente’ and has recently been renovated.

Click here to book for 3rd October: The Gentle Author on East End Vernacular

The Gentle Author presents a magnificent selection of pictures, revealing the evolution of painting in the East End and tracing the changing character of the streets through the twentieth century.

Christ Church Spitalfields by Anthony Eyton, 1980

Brushfield St, Spitalfields, 1951-60 (Courtesy of Museum of London)

Click here to book for 7th November, Griff Rhys Jones on Save Liverpool Street Station

Griff Rhys Jones discusses the campaign to prevent the destruction of Liverpool Street Station and Historian Robert Thorne outlines the history of the majestic station.

Proposed redevelopment of Liverpool St Station

Click here to book for 5th December: Raymond Francis on Morris Goldstein, The Lost Whitechapel Boy

Raymond Francis shows previously unseen paintings by his father Morris Goldstein, exploring his neglected position among his more celebrated peers in the ‘Whitechapel Boys’ group of painters.

Self portrait by Morris Goldstein

Click here to book for 9th January: Stefan Dickers on The Treasures of the Bishopsgate Institute

Archivist Stefan Dickers gives an illustrated lecture showing rare photographs and artefacts from the rich and diverse collections of the Bishopsgate Institute in Spitalfields.

The Bishopsgate Institute (Courtesy of RIBA)

Click here to book for 6th February: An Audience with Dame Siân Phillips

Former Spitalfields resident and superlative actor Dame Siân Phillips reminisces about her astonishing career in conversation with Basil Comely.

Portrait of Sian Phillips by Lucinda Douglas Menzies

Click here to book for 5th March: Julie Begum on The Bengali East End

Julie Begum of the Swadhinata Trust explores her own East End roots and outlines the long history of the presence of Bengali people on this side of London.

Portrait of Julie Begum by Sarah Ainslie

Click here to book for 2nd April: Geoff Quilley on The East India Company

Geoff Quilley describes the dark and violent history of the East India Company, the world’s first corporation and the driving force in British colonialism.

Shah ‘Alam conveying the grant of the Diwani to Lord Clive, August 1765, by Benjamin West

Click here to book for 7th May: Margaret Willes on The Horticultural History of the East End

Writer & Horticultural Historian Margaret Willes describes the garden of London that once existed here before the East End as we know it today was built in the nineteenth century.

Portrait of Margaret Willes by Sarah Ainslie

The graphics are based on the plaque of delft tiles tiles by Paul Bommer on the exterior of the Hanbury Hall commissioned by the Huguenots of Spitalfields in 2015.