This talk is part of the Online Autumn Lecture Series 2025 called Hot Off The Press: Victorians in the Bookshops. Follow this link to book all of the lectures.
Our autumn lecture series celebrates the remarkable recent flourishing of publications on Victorian architecture and related topics. All the speakers are the authors of new books, either just published or forthcoming. Among them are two contributors to the highly successful series Victorian Architects, published by the Victorian Society in collaboration with Liverpool University Press. As well as discussions of individual architects, the subjects of the lectures range from interiors of the Aesthetic Movement to one of the greatest of all Victorian collectors.
Clumber Park: A Queer Inheritance by Michael Hall
Although Clumber Park, seat until the 1930s of the Pelham-Clintons, Dukes of Newcastle, and one of the famous ‘Dukeries’ of north Nottinghamshire, has been demolished, its park – now owned by the National Trust – attracts admirers of Victorian architecture for its magnificent chapel, designed by G.F. Bodley for the 7th Duke in 1886. As the dukedom is extinct, the history of the family who lived at Clumber has largely been forgotten, but the four generations who spanned the nineteenth century were links in a remarkable series of events that begin with the execution for sodomy of the 4th Duke’s valet and concludes with the publication of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Michael Hall, author of A Queer Inheritance: Alternative Histories in the National Trust, to be published by Bloomsbury next February, reconstructs this strange, queer saga.
All attendees will be sent a recording of the talk.
This event helps raise funds for The Victorian Society - the only charity dedicated to fighting for our Victorian and Edwardian heritage. Funds raised from events and memberships allow us to employ expert caseworkers to reply to thousands of planning applications a year in our role as a statutory consultee in the planning system.
We help tackle the climate emergency by campaigning for the sensitive reuse of historic buildings to generate much lower carbon emissions than demolition and rebuild. Join us today and safeguard our unique cultural heritage for future generations! For further information, click here.
Image: Clumber Park chapel. Photo by David Dixon Creative Commons
