The London House Course

This course will return in 2025

The 7-day London House course, directed by David Adshead, studies the development of the London house from the Renaissance to the present.  It combines numerous visits to houses, many of them private, with a series of lectures by leading authorities.  Progressing broadly chronologically and exploring all over London, the course takes members inside grand aristocratic buildings, smaller domestic houses, artists’ studios and the garden suburb. 

The course starts at the VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM and continues onto CHARTERHOUSE  after covering houses in the medieval period.  The Restoration period and eighteenth centuries are explored in BLOOMSBURY and SPITALFIELDS, before being followed by the aristocratic grandeur of great houses in ST. JAMES’S.  One of the days focuses on the artists’ houses and studios of CHELSEA and HOLLAND PARK with the following studying the GARDEN SUBURB and considering twentieth-century domestic developments.  The course includes an in depth study of SIR JOHN SOANE’S house and a look at the London house in the twenty-first century.  

Director, The London House Course

David Adshead, FSA

Course Co-ordinator

Rebecca Parker

Enrolment and fees

The cost of the course is £1540.  This is a non-residential course and the fee includes all lunches, tuition, admissions, travel by coach and receptions on a few evenings.  NB: occasional travel by underground is not included and course members must bring their own travelcard.

Applications

The deadline for applications is 12th April 2023.  All candidates will be notified by the end of April 2023 if they have been awarded a place.  Payment of fees in full will be due by 30 May 2023, and may be made by bank transfer or with a sterling cheque.  Participants are strongly advised to insure against cancellation, as no refunds will be made following payment, unless the place can be filled by another suitable candidate.  In such a case, an administrative fee of £100 will be made.

There is only limited scholarship funding for this course so applicants who are unable to meet the fees are encouraged to approach their institutions for full or partial financial assistance before applying for the course.  Please email Rebecca Parker for further information on this.

Image: Cundall, Charles Ernest; The Demolition of Devonshire House