Georgian Illuminations, Sir John Soane’s Museum,© Gareth Gardener
Details
Venue
Sir John Soane’s Museum, 13 Lincoln Inn Fields, London WC2A 3BP
Event Organisers
Sarah Bowles and Philippa Barton
Cost
Cost of the visit is £45 - plus Eventbrite booking fee
Programme
2.00pm
Visit to the exhibition, Georgian Illuminations at the Sir John Soane’s Museum with Louise Stewart, Curator of Exhibitions, Sir John Soane’s Museum
This intriguing exhibition, with original drawings, designs and prints, as well as two surviving early nineteenth-century transparencies, explores this popular practice in the Georgian age of creating spectacular light displays. These were created by using massed glass lamps, candles and back-lit linen transparencies and celebrated events such as royal birthdays, jubilees and national events such as the defeat of Napoleon. Often they were combined with elaborate architectural structures designed by leading architects including Robert Adam and Sir John Soane. Thomas Jefferson described a light show in 1789 as ‘universal, brilliant and beautiful’ and ‘All London was in the Streets’.
3.30am
Tea