Lecture with Adam Hart-Davis
Date: Wednesday 6 April
Time: 6.30pm - 8pm
Cost: £12 / £10 HRP members
Opened on 1 May 1851 by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, the Great Exhibition was an extravaganza of technological talent. Albert was the figurehead and chief promoter of this great spectacle, built a stone’s throw away from Kensington Palace to celebrate the great advances of the British industrial age and the expansion of the empire.
Railway fever had gripped the country, and Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace became a showcase for locomotives and rolling stock. Steam-powered ploughs were on display, along with the electric telegraph, the growing art and science of photography, the world’s first mowing machine, and dozens of other pieces of new-fangled technology from around the world - not to mention George Merryweather’s leech-powered Tempest Prognosticator.
Writer and presenter Adam Hart-Davis will take you on a journey through the inventions and peculiarities of this fascinating spectacle.
This event includes a drinks reception.
For more information and to book, please go to our Adult Learning section of the website.
From Jenny at Kensington
Talk and Workshop
With musicians from the Saltarello Ensemble
Date: Saturday 2 April
Time: 2 - 5pm
Cost: £28 / £25 HRP members
“Handel’s oratorios thrive abundantly — for my part, they give me an idea of heaven, where everybody is to sing whether they have voices or not” Horace Walpole
In this workshop, the members of the Saltarello Ensemble will bring the sounds of George Frideric Handel’s world to life!
Saltarello will lead you on a musical journey, introducing the work of Handel through the context of baroque music through explanation and live performance. Playing a variety of recorders and continuo they will introduce participants to the music of Handel as well as intriguing works by his contemporaries. The workshop will also explore Handel’s role as court musician to George I and George II and will imagine some of the performances that took place in the candlelit rooms of Kensington Palace.
This event includes light refreshments and entry to Kensington Palace.
For more information and to book, please go to our Adult Learning section of the website.
From Jenny at Kensington
Legends, Scandals, Princesses and Fountains of Wine!
Autumn’s adult learning programme has something for everyone. For the first time, we are offering courses, talks and workshops at Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace, Kew Palace and the Tower of London and we invite you to come and take part.
We have some big name speakers including Dan Cruickshank and Andrew Graham-Dixon, as well as unique opportunities to go behind the scenes at our palaces with our expert curators and conservators. For more information about the programme and how to book please go to www.hrp.org.uk/adultlearning
We look forward to seeing you at one of our events!
Jenny from Kensington Palace
