The Art and Architecture of St Marylebone: Past and Present

This Spring, St. Marylebone’s Lecture Series will explore the art and architecture of the Parish Church, highlighting the craftmanship of the past while celebrating our recent renovations. The lectures will tell St. Marylebone’s stories through art and offer different ways of looking at the space, focusing on the stained-glass windows, the stone masonry, paintings, and architectural features. We have an incredible range of historians, artists, and conservators, who will each share a different insight. 

Each lecture will start in the Crypt at St Marylebone at 6:30 pm and will last about an hour, with time after for questions and discussion.

Single Lecture: £5

Attend All Lectures for £20

Each lecture will be recorded. Please get in touch if you cannot attend in person/are interested in having the recording.

Upcoming Lectures:

Wednesday 3rd April: Art in the Apse with Sophie Hacker 

Wednesday 17th April: Stained Glass in the City with Alexandra Epps 

Wednesday 24th April: Benjamin West PRA and The Painting of the Holy Family with Dr Thomas Ardill (Museum of London) and Rebecca Gregg Conservation 

Wednesday 1st May: Stories in Stone: History, Craft, and Conservation with Victoria Perry and Tony Dyson (Donald Insall Associates) and Fintan Morrison (Sally Strachey Conservation)

Wednesday 29th May: Adapting Church Architecture for the Modern Landscape with Dr Kate Jordan (Westminster University) and Mark Hammond (Caroe Architecture) 

Lecture Series Outline:

Wednesday 3rd April: Art in the Apse with Sophie Hacker 

This illustrated lecture will include some seldom-seen details of the complex and powerful apse painting by John Crompton. The artist Sophie Hacker will explain how she was inspired by the theology of the apse to develop her new work ‘a Sea of Glass like unto Crystal’. A small exhibition of new work, all of which grew out of the project will feature as part of the lecture.

Sophie Hacker specialises in Church Art. She is an advisor for A+C, the UK’s leading organisation in the field of visual art and religion, and a Visiting Scholar at Sarum College. Since 2006 she has been involved in both the display, production and curation of artworks for Winchester Cathedral. She is an Artist Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Glaziers and Painters of Glass, and a member of the British Society of Master Glass Painters. Recent commissions include stained glass windows, chapel crosses, vestments and altar frontals, and ecclesiastical silver as well as a range of private commissions in sculpture and glass.

Wednesday 17th April: Stained Glass in the City with Alexandra Epps 

Following the devastation of wartime bombing a remarkable generation of architects, artists and craftsmen emerged to recreate the historic churches of the square mile of the City of London in the spirit of Sir Christopher Wren. Discover unique stories of people, time and place within its fascinating post-war stained glass.

Alexandra Epps is an Accredited Lecturer for The Arts Society, an official Guide at Tate Modern, Tate Britain and the Guildhall Art Gallery plus a qualified Guide to the City of London offering walks and talks about many aspects of the arts. Alexandra’s background is in design having practised as a graphic designer running her own design consultancy for many years. www.artcity.co.uk

Wednesday 24th April: Benjamin West PRA and The Painting of the Holy Family with Dr Thomas Ardill (Museum of London) and Rebecca Gregg Conservation 

In this lecture, Thomas Ardill will tell the story of Benjamin West’s painting The Holy Family, which he painted as the altarpiece for St. Marylebone Church in 1817-18. American-born West is not a particularly well-known artist today, but from his arrival in England in 1763 until his death in 1820, he was one of the most successful and famous artists in the country, serving as President of the Royal Academy and Painter to the King. For over 45 years, he led a campaign to establish a British school of ecclesiastical painting though the support of major patrons, public exhibitions and gifts. But despite his efforts, and the support of the King, other patrons, critics and the public, religious paintings never became a major component of British art in this period for a number of reasons to do with religious attitudes, artistic taste, and the market. The story of West’s paintings for St Marylebone, though a relatively minor commission, nevertheless provide important evidence for how art, religion and money conspired against Benjamin West and other sacred history painters to thwart their ambitions. Thomas will be joined by Rebecca Gregg Conservation, who will discuss the recent restoration of the painting. 

Dr Thomas Ardill is a curator of paintings, prints and drawings at the Museum of London and an art historian specialising in J.M.W. Turner, British Romantic-era art and the art and social history of London. He achieved his doctorate at the Courtauld Institute in 2016 for his thesis: Between God, Art and Mammon: Religious Painting as a Public Spectacle in Britain, c.1800-1832. Thomas is currently working on a series of permanent displays for the museum’s reopening at West Smithfield in 2026, and a small exhibition about J.M.W. Turner and the environment for Turner’s House in Twickenham. 

Wednesday 1st May: Stories in Stone: History, Craft, and Conservation with Victoria Perry and Tony Dyson (Donald Insall Associates) and Fintan Morrison (Sally Strachey Conservation)

This lecture will be a panel discussion with 3 speakers who have worked with St Marylebone on the recent Changing Lives restoration and conservation project. Each will share a different insight into St Marylebone’s impressive stonework, focusing on the historical, architectural, and technical details of its craftsmanship.

Speakers:

Dr Victoria Perry, Practice Director, Donald Insall Associates

Dr Victoria Perry is a historian, architect and Practice Director at Donald Insall Associates, a company of architects and historic building consultants, whose clients include The Crown Estate and the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, The Place of Westminster as well as other prominent national and international institutions.

Victoria is an external examiner on the MA in Historic Urban Environments at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. She has a particular interest in the connections between historic buildings and Britain’s colonial past; her recent book A Bittersweet Heritage: Slavery, Architecture and the British Landscape (drawn from an earlier PhD) looks at the connections between plantation-owning families – including that of Elizabeth Barrett Browning – and the patronage of British design.

Tony Dyson, Consultant Architect, Donald Insall Associates

Tony specialises in the design of urban hard landscapes to create the architectural settings for memorial sculptures in Conservation Areas.

Professional responsibilities have included major repair and conservation projects at Trafalgar Square, SW1; Somerset House, WC2; Lincoln’s Inn, WC2; Petworth House, West Sussex; Kew Palace, Richmond, Surrey, as well as providing advice and architectural services for sixteen memorial projects in conservation areas in central London, including the Battle of Britain Monument and the Korean War Memorial, Victoria Embankment, SW1; The Young Mozart, Orange Square, SW1; Raoul Wallenberg, Great Cumberland Place, W1; Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi and Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square, SW1 and The National Memorial to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, the Mall, SW1

Fintan Morrison, Stone Mason, Sally Strachey Historic Conservation

Fintan Morrison is a Stone Mason and conservator from London, he is active amongst the SPAB and is a Kings foundation Alumni. He has worked across the country on Listed buildings and monuments and specialises in lime mortars/plasters, the replacement of decorative stonework and rebuilding of complex masonry.

He works for Sally Strachey Historic Conservation who are multi award-winning specialists in the cleaning, repair & conservation of historic stonework, statuary, monuments & decorative surfaces who have worked on a wide range of churches, monuments and historic sites, providing a full service from conservation reports and surveys, through to execution on site by a highly-skilled team of consultants, masons, carvers and conservators.