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Where was the First Cinema?

Prof. Ian Christie argues why this is hard to answer...

Media Reporting of Medical Advances: Helpful or Misleading?

The media and medicine have different perspectives. This lecture will use examples of how the public may be misled and consider the implications of such misunderstanding.

What Really Happened at the First Moving-Picture Shows

Moving pictures may not have been the innovation once claimed, but within a decade few could doubt that they had become a major force in changing the Edwardian world.

The Birth of Modern Theatreland: Covent Garden and the Two Theatres Royal

London is home to two of the oldest working theatres in the world both founded by Charles II’s patents. Professor Thurley looks at the significance and impact of these great institutions on the development of London.

Architecture and the Edwardian Era

Edwardian architecture in particular provides a fascinating commentary on broader historical themes – not only in its use of style and its remodelling of old buildings but also in the range of new activities it provided for.

Palace, Park and Square: St James's and the Birth of the West End

Based on new research into the origins of St. James’s, Simon Thurley looks into the ingredients that went into making a court quarter there and the way it formed a blueprint for the new West End of London.

The 19th Century Craze for Stereoscopic Photography

Stereoscopic photography rapidly became a worldwide craze after the Great Exhibition of 1851. Cheap viewers and mass-produced stereographs brought startlingly vivid images within reach of a mass audience, making this the form in which most people first encountered photography.

Ecotowns or Egotowns?

Drawing upon live audience opinion, the lecture will weigh up the evidence for and against ‘ecotowns’.

House, Shop and Wardrobe in London's Merchant Community

In the first of two lectures with the theme ‘Merchants, Money and Megalomania’, Simon Thurley will unearth the lost mercantile buildings of medieval London and show how influential they were.

Homer's Iliad via the Movie Troy (2004)

Homer’s Iliad, the earliest Greek poem, narrates the archetypal war between ‘Europeans’ and ‘Asiatics’ divided by the Hellespont. Looking at Wolfgang Peterson’s blockbuster Troy (2004), the lecture describes the genesis of the Iliad between the Mycenaean Late Bronze Age and the 8th centu

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