The British Empire's architectural legacy series (7 for 6)(RECORDINGS)

Online Winter Talk Series 2024

Victorian and Edwardian Architecture in the Wider British World

Although the sun has long-since set on the British Empire, its architecture still casts a long shadow. For the 2024 Winter Talk series the Victorian Society will visit Australia, Canada, South Africa, Malaya and New Zealand, with a number of the talks coming from those countries themselves.

A range of themes will be discussed from the architecture of the colonisers to the legacy they left behind, to how the foreign architecture was adapted and adopted by the indigenous peoples who understood the nature of the climate and materials of their own countries. A summary of the talks is below. The series ends with an overview and analysis of Edwardian Baroque architecture in ‘Greater Britain’. On 24 February there is an introductory talks on 19th-century Glasgow, the Second City of the Empire.

Buy tickets for all 7 Online Talks for the price of 6. You can watch recordings of the talks at a time which suits you. Recordings are sent out to you within a week.

1: Fragments of Flamboyancy and Flair in the Second City of the Empire by Rosalie Menon

Architect and Senior Lecturer at the Mackintosh School of Architecture, Rosalie Menon FRIAS, discusses the legacy of Empire within Glasgow, from its warehouses and industrial buildings to the associated financial and commercial institutions.

The nineteenth-century boom in population and the consequent rapid economic growth created a demand for civic buildings, including market halls, libraries and cultural buildings.

This injection of money into Glasgow allowed architects and talented craftsmen to experiment with quality building materials with flair and flamboyancy. Each of these buildings tell a social history of the Second City of the Empire.

2: Colonial Aspiration and 19th Century Public Building in Australia

The Victorian era in the Australian colonies was a significant period of population growth, urban expansion and civic building. Gold rushes, notably in the Colony of Victoria in the early 1850s, provided the means for ambitious architecture, and set a high bar for neighbouring colonies establishing their economic and cultural infrastructure and identities. This talk discusses approaches to nineteenth-century public building in the Australian colonies.

Dr Stuart King is a senior lecturer in architectural design and history at the University of Melbourne and a member of the University’s Australian Centre for Architectural History, Urban and Cultural Heritage.

3: ‘In touch with our modern civilization’: Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, in the 19th and 21st Centuries

This presentation will explore the Victorian and Edwardian architecture of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, as well as the importance and the challenges of keeping that architecture viable in the present day. Although the town’s layout is unchanged since its founding in 1753, much of its distinct architectural character dates from its period of greatest prosperity - the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Peter Coffman is an Associate Professor in Carleton University’s History & Theory of Architecture programme. Hilary Grant is Senior Planner and Heritage Officer for the Town of Lunenburg.

4: Life on the Buffalo River - the Development of East London, South Africa

The river port town of East London, on the eastern seaboard of South Africa, was born in conflict in 1848, and after a long period of penury, finally commenced with more substantial development in the 1870s. The talk will provide an overview of the history and development of the town and present some of the Victorian era architecture and structures.

William Martinson is a conservation architect, a past Council Member of the Eastern Cape Provincial Heritage Resources Authority and a member of the Board of the East London Museum.

5:Eclecticism and Ornament in Malaya’s Vernacular Classicism

Between 1786 and 1957, Britain exerted colonial influence over the Malay Peninsula and its neighbouring islands. For most of this time, classicism served as the language of imperial rule, synonymous with British power. Yet elements of the style were quickly adopted, appropriated, and adapted – first by local elites and subsequently by the masses. This lecture explores how the eclectic ornamental classicism of Victorian and Edwardian Britain came to influence Malaya’s own syncretic brand of classical architecture, resulting in a unique regional style. Soon-Tzu Speechley is Lecturer in Urban and Cultural Heritage at the University of Melbourne.

6 Building Better Britain: Victorian Architecture in New Zealand, 1840 – 1901

The nineteenth-century colonisation of New Zealand was seen as an opportunity to establish a new society on the far side of the world that would perpetuate British culture while avoiding the poverty, overcrowding and industrial pollution that afflicted contemporary Britain. Here, a range of factors, shaped an architecture that was recognisably British yet distinctively of its place in the South Pacific.

Ian Lochhead taught Art History at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, from 1981 to 2014.

7: The Architecture of ‘Greater Britain’: Style and Empire, c.1885-1915

This lecture will consider the role architecture played in responding to perceived notions of British decline in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It will focus on the Edwardian Baroque style and its relationship to the idea of ‘Greater Britain’, suggesting that architects, their clients, and critics associated with the design of substantial public and commercial buildings during this period, both in Britain and in the wider British world, were acutely aware of the meaning that the style carried.

Alex Bremner is Professor of Architectural History at the University of Edinburgh.

All proceeds go to supporting the Victorian Society and the fight to save England and Wales' Victorian and Edwardian heritage.