Explore English Palladianism in May 2014 during an eight-day tour in the London region as well as two days in Norfolk visiting several of the most remarkable Palladian houses outside Italy.
Before visiting significant Palladian sites of the 18th century, the tour will explore the formative influence of Inigo Jones, Palladio’s first devotee among English architects—the man credited with bringing classicism to Britain in the early years of the 17th century. The tour includes a visit to the Prints and Drawings Collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects and coincides with the major exhibition of William Kent’s impact on Georgian England at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), which there will be an opportunity to visit.
Organized by experienced tour leader, Dr. John Braymer, the tour will be led by Roger White, a professional architectural historian, educated at Cambridge and Oxford Universities, and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. Formerly Secretary of both the Georgian Group and Garden History Society, he has lectured widely (including in the US), curated several exhibitions, and written innumerable articles and books, including the official guide books to Chiswick House and Holkham Hall. Most recently he has contributed to the massive new book on William Kent (Yale UP), which will accompany the exhibition on Kent, first at the Bard Center in New York and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. He is a Contributing Editor of House & Garden magazine. Download the Registration Form.
The tour is co-sponsored by the Virginia Society of the American Institute of Architects, the Virginia Center for Architecture, and the Center for Palladian Studies in America.
Monday, May 12
Members of the tour will check into Tara Copthorne Hotel in the Borough of Kensington and meet in the late afternoon at the hotel for introductions and drinks before dinner on your own.
Tuesday, May 13
After breakfast at the hotel, we will walk to the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Prints and Drawings Collection at the V&A, where Charles Hind, Drue Heinz Curator of P&D, will introduce us to the RIBA’s significant holdings of documents illustrating the evolution of Palladian influence in British architecture. We will then travel by coach to Inigo Jones’s Queen’s Chapel at St. James’s Palace. A lunch is being arranged at a nearby club. The coach will then take us to Jones’s Banqueting House in Whitehall, with its celebrated ceiling by Rubens, before we go on to Greenwich where Jones’s Queen’s House sits serenely on the site of the former Greenwich Palace. We return by coach to our London hotel. Evening is free.
Wednesday, May 14
Today we will leave by coach at 9:15 am for visits in West London, starting with Chiswick House, Lord Burlington’s exquisite suburban villa with interiors by Kent, where we will have lunch after touring the house and gardens. Then to Marble Hill House, a classic Palladian villa on the banks of the Thames at Twickenham, and finally Asgill House at Richmond, an important villa of the 1760s by Sir Robert Taylor, where we will be entertained by the owner. The coach will return us to our London hotel.
Thursday, May 15
We leave by coach at 9am to visit Inigo Jones’s church of St Paul’s Covent Garden, followed by the magnificent Mansion House (George Dance senior), the official residence of the Lord Mayor of London; finally, we will study the exterior of William Kent’s Horse Guards before breaking for a free afternoon and evening.
Friday, May 16
Today is a day by coach to the north of London, first visiting the Stoke Park Pavilions by Inigo Jones. The remainder of the day is devoted to a tour of the Duke of Bedford’s imposing seat at Woburn Abbey, with its suite of lavish state rooms by Lord Burlington’s protégé Henry Flitcroft. Lunch will be served on the Woburn estate. Evening is free.
Saturday, May 17
We travel by coach into the Chiltern Hills to see the beautiful mid-18th century landscape surrounding West Wycombe Park, and also the fine Georgian church on the hill above. After a private lunch at Hartwell House, which has excellent late-Palladian/Rococo interiors by Henry Keene, we conclude at Rousham House in Oxfordshire, an Elizabethan manor house transformed by Kent, who also gave it his most personal and best-preserved landscape garden.
Sunday, May 18
We pay a morning visit to Spencer House overlooking Green Park in central London. The capital’s finest surviving aristocratic town house, it has magnificent Palladian rooms by Kent’s protégé John Vardy on the ground floor, and equally fine neoclassical state rooms by James ‘Athenian’ Stuart on the piano nobile. Sunday lunch has been planned for the Oxford and Cambridge Club in St. James’s. The afternoon is free to visit the William Kent exhibition (V&A).
Monday, May 19
We travel by train from London Kings Cross to King’s Lynn in Norfolk, where a local coach transfers us to Houghton Hall, one of England’s grandest country mansions. The superb interiors by Kent are his earliest interior commission and retain most of the furniture he designed for them. After a private tour we proceed to Titchwell Manor, a very comfortable hotel overlooking the sea, which is noted for its fine food. Dinner will be served at Titchwell Manor, which has a growing reputation for excellent food in the region.
Tuesday, May 20
Holkham Hall, with its quartet of Palladian towers, is arguably Kent’s greatest achievement, retaining probably to a degree unparalleled in Europe its original furnishings and paintings bought for it in the mid-18th century. Roger White, who wrote the guide book, takes us on a privileged tour of the interior, after which we have lunch at the Victoria Hotel at the gates of the estate. Following lunch we pay a visit to Raynham Hall (Kent), before returning to King’s Lynn station for a late afternoon train to London where the tour officially ends.
The exact final schedule may change slightly to take advantage of best opportunities. Participants must make their own lodging arrangements for May 20 to accommodate their individual travel plans.
TOUR COST PER PERSON DOUBLE OCCUPANCY: $ 3500 (Single Supplement $650)
Tour includes modern hotel accommodation (8 nights) with daily breakfast, seven lunches, one dinner, coach and train transport, all entrance fees, and an expert architectural history guide throughout.
A deposit of $1000 per person ($1250 w/ single supplement) will reserve your place in the tour with your check made payable to PALLADIO AT LARGE and sent c/o the Virginia Society AIA, 2501 Monument Avenue, Richmond, Virginia 23220. Final payment is due February 1, 2014.
Cancellations after final payment will be honored by a refund, less administrative fees, only if your reserved place is taken by another registrant. We urge you to buy travel insurance. Finally, we reserve the right to adjust the fee if a substantial change in the exchange rate should occur after February 1. Should such an adjustment be necessary, participants will be notified by April 1, 2014. Download the Registration Form.