The British Library is making recordings of selected events available
as downloadable audio files (in MP3 format). However not all events
are suitable for podcasting. If and when a podcast is available
we will give details on this page.
For more details about our podcasts and podcasting in general,
see our help
page.
Monday 27 November 2006
Underground London
Antony Clayton
An
illustrated talk by Antony Clayton, author of Subterranean City;
beneath the streets of London, which will uncover some of the
mysterious overcrowded world beneath the streets of London. Topics
will include: London's lost rivers, Victorian utility subways, the
growth of the underground railway, government bunkers and tunnels
and aspects of the folklore of underground London such as alleged
secret tunnels and ghosts. The talk will conclude with a short film
about Piccadilly Circus and its underground services.
Antony Clayton is also the author of London’s Coffee
Houses; a Stimulating Story (2003) and Decadent London
(2005).
Tuesday 12 December 2006
Classic Book: Dickens' Oliver Twist and Great Expectations
A panel discussion chaired by Peter Florence
Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist tells the tale of an orphan who was
born in a workhouse. After an unhappy apprenticeship, Oliver runs
away to London where he falls in with thieves, headed by Fagin.
He is rescued by Mr Brownlow but the gang kidnap him back. Oliver
discovers the identity of his parents and the gang is exposed.
Great Expectations opens unforgettably with the orphan Pip, disturbed
to meet an escaped convict, Magwitch, but gives him food, in an
encounter that is to haunt both their lives. How Pip receives riches
from a mysterious benefactor, snobbishly abandons his friends for
London society and 'great expectations', and grows through misfortune
and suffering to maturity is the theme of one of Dickens best-loved
novels.
Panel including Howard Jacobson and John Sutherland.
Monday 15 January 2007
Classic Book: Martin Amis' Money
Panel discussion chaired by Peter Florence
Martin Amis begins a loose trilogy of novels set in London with
Money: A Suicide Note (1984), a satire of Thatcherite
amorality and greed, continues with London Fields (1989),
and concludes with The Information (1995), a tale of literary
rivalry.
Peter Florence is Director of the Guardian Hay
Festival.
Wednesday 24 January 2007
Statuary and the London Townscape
Philip Ward-Jackson
Though much has been written about individual London statues and
memorials, the logic of their distribution remains largely virgin
territory. After a brief look at medieval and later precedents,
this talk will explore the impact of statue-mania on town-planning.
Moving from the legacy of John Nash to Victorian laissez-faire,
and then on to the neo-baroque 1900s, it shows how, from grandiose
conceptions, through economic stringency and inspired afterthought,
the monumental topography of London today has been arrived at.
Philip Ward-Jackson is author of Public Monuments of the City
of London.
Wednesday 31 January 2007
The Delight of All Persons of Reputation and Taste: Vauxhall Gardens
1661-1859
David Coke
Vauxhall Gardens, with its avant-garde art and eccentric architecture,
became the great pleasure resort of Georgian London, celebrated
in literature by Fanny Burney, Charles Dickens and many others.
It provided the first public gallery of modern British art, and
gave contemporary music and song its first truly mass audience,
but was more famous at the time for its astonishing illuminations
and meager fare. This talk aims to give an idea of what it was like
to visit Vauxhall in the 1750s, the journey there, the costume,
the sights, sounds and smells.
David Coke is an art-historian and museum curator, is now completing
(with Alan Borg) a comprehensive history of Vauxhall Gardens which
he hopes will be published in 2007/8.
Monday 5 February 2007
Over Here: Americans in London
Panel discussion with Loyd Grossman and Mary Jordan
As
London correspondent for The Washington Post, Mary Jordan
has professional as well as personal reasons to be able to find
her way around London and the rest of the UK, and has had a while
to find her bearings. James Pfiffner (George Mason University, Washington
DC) might still be finding his days in London rather foggy, having
been in London for just one month of a Visiting Professorship at
London University. For some of us it might seem that Loyd Grossman
has himself become and integral part of the culture and the landscape.
These three Americans share with the audience their experiences
of the city, and their personal Maps of London.
Listen
again (MP3, 59 minutes, 23.6MB): Mary Jordan, James Pfiffner
and Loyd Grossman, introduced by Philip Davies of the Eccles Centre
for American Studies. We apologise for the poor sound quality
during part of this recording.
Wednesday 14 February 2007
Uncharted Territories: The Brave New World of Mapping
The current British Library exhibition London: a Life in Maps demonstrates
our fascination with art and science of mapping, linking the global
to the local and the personal. For its first major event of 2007,
CreateKX celebrates creative and artistic innovation which uses
satellite, mobile and internet technology to transform the world
of maps and builds the relationships between places. This event
will showcase projects like Proboscis' extraordinary Urban Tapestries,
a "Mass Observation for the 21st Century", and Jen Hamilton and
Jen Southern's Running Stitch a huge tapestry map, created live
over four weeks, that uses satellite navigation technology to explore
urban environments. This is a unique event not to be missed, with
a chance to talk to these artists and other creative and digital
innovators over drinks.
Wednesday 21 February 2007
Crown or People: Who Ran Tudor and Stuart London?
Simon Thurley
So many European capital cities were modelled by their rulers.
Paris , for example, owes its appearance to the French monarchy;
it isn't the only one. What about London? Did the Tudor and Stuart
monarchs want to transform London into a carefully planned royal
capital or did London develop differently? Dr Simon Thurley looks
at the balance of forces that went in to the creation of early modern
London - on the one hand the monarchy and the court and the other
the city oligarchy and the merchants. Who had the upper hand, and
to which group do we owe the foundations of modern London?
Simon Thurley is Chief Executive of English Heritage.
Tuesday 27 February 2007
North Face of Soho: Clive James
After "Unreliable Memoirs", "Falling Towards England"
and "May Week Was in June" comes the next instalment in
the ongoing saga that is Clive James 's life. At the very end of
"May Week Was in June", we left our hero sitting beside
the River Cam one beautiful 1968 spring day, jotting down his thoughts
in a journal. Newly married and about to leave the cloistered world
of Cambridge academia for the racier, glossier life promised by
"Literary London", he was, so he informed his journal,
reasonably satisfied.
With his criticism beginning to appear in magazines and newspapers
such as the "New Statesman", and his poetry published
in "Carcanet", as well as a play then being performed
to rave reviews at the Arts Theatre, James had good reason to be
content. But what happened next? This is the question posed, and
answered by Clive James as he walks the audience through the "North
Face of Soho". Intelligent, amusing and provocative - the words
apply to the man himself as much as his memoirs - it's a book that
can't come soon enough for the legions of Clive James fans worldwide.
In association with the Times Literary Supplement.
Wednesday 28 February 2007
2012 Design
With preparations already underway for 2012, the map of east London
is already undergoing a dramatic and permanent change. Jerome Frost
will explain what areas are affected, how the plans are progressing
and how the vision will be delivered in time for the Olympics. He
will also talk about the legacy of the games and their influence
on the story of London.
Jerome Frost is Head of Design from the Olympic Delivery Authority.
Family events
February Half-Term
Tuesday 20, Wednesday 21 and Thursday 22 February 2007
Free, drop-in storytelling sessions
10.30 and 11.30 (45 minutes per session)
Go on a journey through London: A Life in Maps with storyteller,
Kevin Graal.
Workshop (including storytelling)
13.30-15.30
Mind-stretching maps and hair-raising trails - join Kevin Graal
as he explores London: A Life in Maps through tale, myth
and riddle. In this session you will also have the opportunity to
make up your own London legend.
Admission Free (places must be booked in advance)
Suitable for under 11s.
How to get the most out of your Map Research
Maps are an invaluable source of social as well as topographical
information. They can also reveal attitudes and mentalities that
are rarely committed to writing. However unlocking their secrets
involves close study and skilled evaluation of the written and visual
evidence.
To help all those interested in local history the British Library
is running a series of events explaining how to use maps as a research
tool, each focusing on a particular London Borough or adjacent Borough:
Camden/Haringey Monday 5 February 2007 14.00-16.30
Kensington and Chelsea Monday 12 February 2007 14.00-16.30
Lewisham Saturday 17 February 2007 14.00-16.30
Newham/Tower Hamlets Tuesday 27 February 2007 14.00-16.30
Each workshop will include a guided tour of the exhibition, London:
A Life in Maps, and will be hosted by Peter Barber,
head of the Map Collection at the British Library and curator of
the exhibition.
