Welcome to the IanVisits guide to lectures, talks, heritage events, organised walks and other random miscellany happening around London.
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Event is free of charge (sometimes a donation is appreciated) |
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Pre-Booking required. |
Monday, 20th May
| 6:30 PM | Progressive Capitalism - with Lord Sainsbury (Holborn) |
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The neoliberalism that has dominated economic thinking since Mrs Thatcher and Ronald Reagan first came to power is now seen to have serious flaws, |
| 6:30 PM | State Propaganda behind the Iron Curtain (Camden) |
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Leading historians of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc explore the extraordinary world of propaganda in the communist era. (Cost: £7.50) |
Tuesday, 21st May
| 2:00 PM | London's Pride (Cheapside, City of London) |
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A talk about the wide variety of Lions that can be found in London. |
| 4:00 PM | Do countries need currencies, and do currencies need countries? (Holborn) |
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Professor Harold James examines the historical contexts of debates about whether the creation of money depended on a state, |
Wednesday, 22nd May
| 7:00 AM | Monthly tours of Smithfield Market (Barbican) |
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Monthly early morning tour of the Smithfield Meat market. (Cost: £8.00) |
| 11:00 AM | Bishops of London who came to a ‘sticky end’ (Fulham) |
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Miranda Poliakoff, Curator of Fulham Palace, takes a light-hearted look at some of the Palace residents whose lives were cut short. |
| 2:00 PM | The history of the Great West Road (Acton) |
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A talk about the history of the factories, their architecture and their products. |
| 2:00 PM | Sheep Across London Bridge: The Freedom of the City of London (Cheapside, City of London) |
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Murray Craig, will explain the modern Freedom and what it means in the twenty first century. |
| 3:30 PM | Poor Souls (Southwark) |
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This talk looks at the wealth of records either side of the 1834 Poor Law Act in which most of our ancestors will appear. (Cost: £8) |
| 6:00 PM | Why does nobody eat in books? (Cheapside, City of London) |
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Two book authors discuss the history of English food, and why people rarely seem to eat when depicted in novels. (Cost: £5) |
| 6:30 PM | Fallen women, moody bitches, and stupid southerners |
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This talk explores the translation of detective stories and the ideology that shapes them, |
| 7:00 PM | Teaching your fingers to see (Mayfair) |
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How does a surgeon master his craft or a GP diagnose through palpation? (Cost: £10) |
| 7:30 PM | Shaking things up! - A New Look at the Marquess of Queensberry (Liverpool Street) |
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Linda Stratmann paints a complex picture of the Marquess of Queensberry. (Cost: ) |
Thursday, 23rd May
| 5:00 PM | Monthly vigil at the Cross Bones Graveyard (Southwark) |
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Vigils have been held on the 23rd of every month since June 2004. They are inclusive, secular events, open 'to all faiths and none'. |
| 7:00 PM | Bravo Two Zero: 20 Years On (Chelsea) |
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Andy McNab will talk about that ill-fated mission that went deep into the Iraqi desert during the First Gulf War (Cost: £10) |
Friday, 24th May
| 5:30 PM | Royalty and splendour in the House of Lords (Westminster) |
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Exclusive guided tours focusing on the art and decorative arts of the House of Lords on selected Friday evenings (Cost: £30) |
| 6:30 PM | Propaganda and Politics in the Modern Age (Camden) |
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How has the nature of propaganda changed over the course of the last 100 years? (Cost: £7.50) |
| 6:30 PM | Lecture Bodies of Pompeii and Herculaneum (Bloomsbury) |
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A lecture about what these bones tell us about life and death in this region in AD 79, across the social spectrum. (Cost: £5) |
Saturday, 25th May
| All Day | Take a trip along the Metropolitan Line in a steam train (Covent Garden) |
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A number of trips over the weekend along the Met Line hauled by a steam train. (Cost: £15-£45) |
Sunday, 26th May
| All Day | Enfield Pageant of Motoring |
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Large road vehicle fair - not much more known about it, although their history page suggests it could be huge. (Cost: £9) |
| All Day | Take a trip along the Metropolitan Line in a steam train (Covent Garden) |
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A number of trips over the weekend along the Met Line hauled by a steam train. (Cost: £15-£45) |
| 2:00 PM | St Augustine's Tower Open Day (Hackney) |
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Discover the history of the building and climb the 135 stairs for the best view of Hackney. |
Monday, 27th May
| All Day | Enfield Pageant of Motoring |
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Large road vehicle fair - not much more known about it, although their history page suggests it could be huge. (Cost: £9) |
| All Day | Take a trip along the Metropolitan Line in a steam train (Covent Garden) |
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A number of trips over the weekend along the Met Line hauled by a steam train. (Cost: £15-£45) |
| 6:30 PM | An Evening With Richard Kiel (James Bond Villain) (Lewisham) |
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A screening The Spy Who Loved Me with a talk by the Jaws actor Richard Kiel (Cost: £15) |
Wednesday, 29th May
| All Day | Oak Apple Day |
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The 353rd Oak Apple Day to commemorate the anniversary of the day that King Charles II returned to London |
| 7:00 PM | Falling upwards (Mayfair) |
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Falling Upwards tells the story of the enigmatic group of men and women who first risked their lives to take to the air, (Cost: £10) |
Thursday, 30th May
| 7:00 PM | The Life of Albert Hofmann and his Discovery of LSD (Hackney) |
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The talk will reveal the eventful history of LSD, which became the subject of numerous clinical studies opening the way for innovative forms of therap (Cost: £7) |
| 8:00 PM | The World’s Strangest Deaths (Whitechapel) |
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Hear how the mighty and the humble have suffered the most bizarre, embarrassing and amusing deaths at the hands of fickle fate. (Cost: £3) |