A morning visit to Kettle’s Yard followed by a guided tour of the Fitzwilliam Museum in the afternoon.

Kettle’s Yard is a beautiful house, the University of Cambridge’s modern and contemporary art gallery founded by Jim and Helen Ede who’s home it was from 1957-1973.

From antiquity to the present day, the Fitzwilliam Museum houses a world renowned collection of over half a million beautiful works of art, masterpiece paintings and historical artefacts.

We depart by coach from Chiswick Town Hall to arrive at Kettle’s Yard by 11am where we will be appropriately divided into groups to visit the house at our leisure.

We will then be driven to the Fitzwilliam Museum in time to have lunch (own expense) before being divided for an hour’s guided tour, at 2pm or 3.15 pm, led by art historian and lecturer Sarah Burles.  Those either waiting for their tour or after it will be free to explore other areas of the museum.

We will depart for London at about 4.30pm

The cost is £50 each and we are limited to 30 people.

This is now full.

Email visits.tasch@gmail.com for further information.

We have booked a one-hour private tour of the Supreme Court.  In this we will learn about the history and workings of The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom with a tour from one of their experienced guides.

Each tour includes: 

• Access to the library 

• Insight into the judicial process and the constitutional role of the Court 

• Fascinating facts about landmark cases that have shaped UK law 

• A look at the building’s rich history and neo-Gothic design, including works by artists such as Gainsborough and Reynolds 

• Opportunities to ask questions and explore complex legal topics in an accessible way 

Our tour is booked for 2pm but we will meet at 1pm to enjoy a sandwich packed lunch at the Court before our tour.

The building is situated on Parliament Square, Westminster, directly opposite the Houses of Parliament and an easy tube ride.

The cost is £18 to include the tour and lunch.

Email visits.tasch@gmail.com to reserve your place 

This is the first major European exhibition of Whistler’s work in 30 years and will be a wonderful opportunity to enjoy and study every branch of Whistler’s groundbreaking work, encompassing his exquisite landscapes and portraits, as well as his drawings and prints.  His career ranged from his early life in St Petersburg to his time in Paris and then his controversial and revolutionary work in London beside the Thames.

On this occasion, because the cost of group catering at the Tate has become prohibitive, we have chosen to have the (always excellent) one hour lecture at 11.30am, followed by an hour for lunch (at your own expense) and entry to the exhibition from 1.30pm.

For those who wish to, we will meet in the cafe from 10.30am.

Cost: £42; £32 for Art Fund members; £20 for Tate members.

To book your place please email 

visits.tasch@gmail.com

Taormina, Siracusa and Piazza Amerino

25-30 April 2026

Our overseas trip will be to the beautiful island of Sicily.  

To see the brochure online go to www.tailored-travel.co.uk, click on View Your Tour and quote chsd261.  Please note you cannot make a booking, just view the brochure.

We have been overwhelmed by the immediate response and all places have been booked.  However, do feel free to email janice21.tasch@gmail.com to be added to our reserve list.  

A morning backstage tour of Drury Lane Theatre, followed by a private tour in the afternoon of the newly restored Hogarth Murals at Bart’s Hospital.

We meet at Drury Lane Theatre in the morning for an hour and a half private guided backstage tour. 

The tour takes us on a journey through theatrical history at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, the oldest theatre on the same site in the world. Nestled in the heart of Covent Garden it has survived tragedy, fire, bankruptcy and even murder.

After a break for lunch (own expense) we go by tube to Barts Hospital to discover the remarkable paintings and monumental interiors of the Great Hall and Hogarth Stair now open for viewing after a year of repair, restoration and conservation. 

Cost £35.00 per person for the 2 private tours

This visit is now full.  Please email visits.tasch@gmail.com for any cancellations.

Picture credit: Matthew Andrews

Our 90 minute guided tour, starting at 11.30am will include the  history, collection and architecture of the British Library where we will visit the Viewing Gallery, some of the Reading Rooms and find out how books are stored, accessed and delivered.

We will learn about the King’s Library (George III's library) and the Klencke Atlas, the second largest atlas in the world, and visit the Sir John Ritblat Gallery where several of the library’s greatest treasures are displayed.

Should people want to stay for lunch afterwards, there are several cafes in the library and also in and around the nearby stations.

The cost is £15 per person and we are limited to a maximum of 15 people

For more information please email visits.tasch@gmail.com

The Bayeux Tapestry is one of the world’s most famous pieces of medieval art. It is 70 metres long, and chronicles the legendary tale of the Norman conquest of England, when William the Conqueror invaded and defeated King Harold Godwinson.

In the late 19th century, an extremely ambitious project was undertaken by a group of Victorian embroiderers to recreate the Bayeux Tapestry in full, painstakingly reproducing every single detail, stitch-by-stitch, so that the Tapestry's timeless story could be enjoyed by the people of Britain at the Reading Museum.

The cost is £10 each to include a guided tour of the Tapestry and a donation to the Museum.

We will travel together on the Elizabeth Line (changing from the District Line at Ealing Broadway).  The Reading Museum is in the centre of Reading at the Town Hall and is a two-minute walk from Reading station. The main entrance is on Blagrave Street 

Our guided tour is at 2.30pm and there is a small cafe on site so we suggest meeting at 12 to take the trains and eat there.

Email visits.tasch@gmail.com for details and to book your place.

This small group morning tour takes you to see the warehouse (1 Garrick Road NW9 6AA) where stock from Angels Costumes is kept safe.

Angels, established more than 100 years ago has dressed stars for everything from West End productions, to Game of Thrones and numerous award winning films.

This tour is now full but please contact visits.tasch@gmail.com if you would like to be put on the waiting list. 

We are pleased to announce a three-day visit from 28-30 October, to include a performance at Glyndebourne opera, visits to National Trust properties and two nights at a hotel in Eastbourne.  Please see https://www.tailored-travel.co.uk/chiswickartssociety_sussex_2025

Bookings have now closed

Email janice21.tasch@gmail.com with any queries

A major exhibition of the trailblazing surrealist photographer.

First exposed to a camera by working in front of it, Miller was one of the most sought after models of the late 1920s.  She quickly stepped behind the lens, becoming the leading figure in the avant-garde scenes in New York, Paris, London and Cairo.

The exhibition showcases Miller’s extraordinary career, from her participation in French surrealism to her fashion and war photography.

The cost of the day includes tea/coffee/ biscuits on arrival, an hour’s introductory lecture by an experienced Tate Guide followed by a buffet lunch including a variety of sandwiches, wraps, cakes and fruit and then entry to the exhibition.

Cost: £62, £52 for Art Fund members and £42 for Tate members.

To book please email visits.tasch@gmail.com

An all day visit by coach to Sussex to Visit Farley Farm House and Gallery in the morning and Charleston in the afternoon.

Surrealist photographer, vogue model and WW11 correspondent, Lee Miller is one of the most fascinating figures of 20th century photography.

Lee Miller married Roland Penrose in 1947 and moved to Sussex to live at Farleys in 1949. They lived there for 35 years with their son Anthony Penrose, filling their house with a collection of contemporary art treasures. Today Farley is the base of the Lee Miller Archives and the Penrose Collection. We will have a private guided tour of the house followed by access to the Galleries and Gardens.

We leave Farley and have a 20 minute drive to Charleston, the modernist home and studios of painters Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant who moved there from London in 1916 along with Duncan's lover, and Vanessa's two young sons.

Experimental thinking was at the centre of everyday life at Charleston and the move here was an opportunity to explore new ways of thinking, living and working.

We will tour the house and then have an opportunity to visit the garden and sculpture garden.

Charleston has a cafe where you can buy lunch – not included – or alternatively you can bring a picnic to eat in the garden at Charleston.

Cost is  £65.00 per person, or £63.00 if you are an Art Fund member.

This visit is now full.

For further information please email visits.tasch@gmail.com 

Our 90 minute guided tour, starting at 11.30am will include the  history, collection and architecture of the British Library where we will visit the Viewing Gallery, some of the Reading Rooms and find out how books are stored, accessed and delivered.

We will learn about the King’s Library (George 111’s library) and the Klencke Atlas, the second largest atlas in the world, and visit the Sir John Ritblat Gallery where several of the library’s greatest treasures are displayed.

Lunch - at our own expense - will be in one (or more) of the library’s cafes - to be confirmed.

At 2pm we will meet Charlie Forman our Blue Badge guide and begin by standing between two of London’s most majestic railway stations- the great competitors Kings Cross and St Pancras. But also discover what lay behind those facades. 

The mighty gas works, the Granary Building backed by coal drops and a myriad of rail marshalling yards have left their mark while the Regent’s Canal still runs through the area’s very heart.  Brilliantly recreated today and echoing all that past activity, is a city square with fountains, a shopping street, a university and much more. Move on to cruise past St Pancras lock and a Natural Park, to explore the haunting graveyards around old St Pancras Church. It’s a powerful and unique mix - an extraordinary new urban environment which is so revealing of the past.

Cost £28

This Visit is now full.

For further information please email visits.tasch@gmail.com

We are very excited to be able to offer our members this very interesting visit to Olympia Auctions

25 Blythe Road, London W14 0PD

10am – 12pm

Private Free Valuations Morning

All members can bring one item.  Olympia Auctions will have experts in silver, ceramics, sculpture, objects of vertu, and jewellery and watches.  Also an expert in works on paper and paintings.

Coffee/tea/juice and pastries will be served

Selected Indian and Islamic Works on Art will be decorating the walls and in the cabinets. (Auction of Indian, Islamic, South East Asian and Himalayan Works of Art takes place the following week, 4th June).

12 – 12.30pm

Head of the Pictures Department, Adrian Biddell will do a talk on the Value in Art.   Adrian worked for 27 years in Sotheby’s, first in the Impressionist department for more than a decade, after which he ran the 19th century European paintings department for 16 years.

Cost: £12.00

Booking will open at the lecture on 13 March.  

Email visits.tasch@gmail.com for further information or to book your place

From 22 to 26 April 2025

Our overseas trip for 2025 will be to the island of Malta and will include a day in Gozo.  Brochures and booking forms are now available.

To view this tour online, click on View Your Tour at www.tailored-travel.co.uk and quote chsd251.

This visit is now SOLD OUT. Please contact us to be added to the waiting list.

Further information from janice21.tasch@gmail.com

We are very privileged to be able to offer our members a visit to this private Jade Collection.

Jade was regarded as the most precious material in ancient China, and symbolised purity, moral integrity, prosperity, success, and good fortune. It also had connotations of immortality. Prized for its durability and magical qualities, the stone was laboriously worked and polished into all manner of objects from burial objects to jewellery to desk ornaments.

The Woolf collection of jades is a private collection of mainly 18th century, superb quality jades, one of the most prolific periods of production in the history of Chinese jade. 

Carol Michaelson, a curator of Chinese jade in the British Museum will give a general introduction about jade, and its place in Chinese culture and take you on a guided tour of this superb collection of jade objects.

Our visit is at 10.30 a.m. for approximately 90 minutes,

Location: Wessex House, 1 Chesham Street, London, SW1X 8ND

So we suggest meeting outside Sloane Square underground station and we can then all walk together to Chesham Street – less than 10 minutes.

Cost: £13.50

This Visit is now FULL

Email visits.tasch@gmail.com for further information

We are delighted to arrange a return visit to BAPS Shri Swaminarayam Mandir or to give it it's more usual name Neasden Temple. When we visited several years ago the restaurant on the site was closed, but this time we have arranged a buffet lunch there after our tour.

The visit takes about 2 hours and includes a welcome and introductory address, a History of the Mandir video, and a guided tour of the building, followed by “Arti Ceremony” which is performed daily at 11.45. This is a short religious ceremony where males and females are seated separately. You will also have time to visit the “Understanding Hinduism” exhibition.                   

Our tour will start at 10.30 and we will meet there in their car park at 10.20.

It is not an easy place to access by public transport so will endeavour to arrange lifts for those unable to get there by car.

We suggest that anyone joining this tour go online to read the information for visitors in regard to dress code, bag deposit etc. although we will send further information to you all prior to the tour.

The cost is £17.00 per person which includes a light vegetarian buffet lunch. Soft drinks can be purchased separately.

This Visit is now FULL

For further information please email visits.tasch@gmail.com

The National Portrait Gallery has recently undertaken a huge refurbishment programme and, after three years, it reopened in June 2023.

The project comprised a complete re-presentation of the Collection, combined with a significant refurbishment of the building, the creation of public spaces, a more welcoming visitor entrance and public forecourt and a new Learning Centre.

Our tour with a Blue Badge Guide at 11am - 12.30 approx - is limited to a maximum group size of 15.

We have therefore arranged a second, duplicate tour at 2pm-3.30pm approx.

If you have a preference for morning or afternoon, please let us know when booking.

For lunch there’s a cafe at the Gallery as well as two restaurants, for which booking is advised, as well as a variety of places to eat locally.

Cost £18

Booking will open at the lecture on 14 November 2024

Freemasons’ Hall

We will have a guided tour of this imposing Grade 2 Art Deco building and delve into the 300 year history of Freemasonry. The third building on this site the hall was built between 1927 and 1933 as a memorial to the 3,225 Freemasons who died on active service in WW1.

Central to the building is the Grand Temple and there are a further 26 masonic temples (formal lodge meeting rooms) within the building - all highly ornate and no two identical.

Guided tour of ‘The Lane’

Now Cancelled

The Freemasons’ Hall is in Great Queen Street between Holborn and Covent Garden.

Freemasons’ Hall 12 Noon

There will now be time for a longer lunch (at own expense) around Covent Garden.

Price £34 - refunds of £20 will be made

This Visit is now Full 

Email visits.tasch@gmail.com for further information

We have group tickets to this wonderful Palace, situated within Kensington Gardens.  Admission includes entry to the King’s State Apartments, the Queen’s State Apartments and Victoria: A Royal Childhood. 

Your ticket also includes entrance to the Untold Lives exhibition which received excellent reviews when it opened earlier this year (this will close at the end of the month) and entitles you to an optional Digital Visitor Guide.

There is a café there where we can enjoy a light lunch – either between exhibitions or afterwards.

The best way to reach Kensington Palace from Chiswick is to take the 94 bus to Queensway, from where it’s an easy ten minute walk to the entrance of the Palace.

Timed entry tickets: 11 a.m.  Price: £18.00

Email visits.tasch@gmail.com for further information

HENRY MOORE STUDIOS & GARDENS

Henry Moore Studios & Gardens in rural Hertfordshire is the best place in the world to appreciate the work of sculptor Henry Moore.  Moores former estate is much as it was during the artist’s lifetime and provides the perfect backdrop for his work, which Moore always intended to be experienced in the landscape. You can experience Moore’s family home Hoglands, explore his studios, see his tapestries in the Aisled Barn and admire the gardens created by his wife Irina.

We will travel by coach from Chiswick to arrive by 10.45 am and return to Chiswick in late afternoon.

The cost, which includes the coach, entry fees and guided tours of Hoglands and of the Studios and Gardens, as well as lunch, is £58.

This Visit is now Full

Email visits.tasch@gmail.com for further information

DISCOVER THE STORY OF THE FRIENDSHIPS THAT MADE MODERN ART

Explore the groundbreaking work of a circle of friends and close collaborators known as The Blue Rider. In the early 20th century they came together to form, in their own words, ‘a union of various countries to serve one purpose’ - to transform modern art.

The artists rallied around Wassilly Kandinsky and Gabrielle Munter to experiment with colour, sound and light, creating bold and vibrant art.

Expressionists is a story of friendships told through art. It examines the highly individual creatives that made up The Blue Rider, from Frank Marc ‘s interest in colour to Alexander Sacharoff’s freestyle performance. The women artists played a central role in the movement. 

Experience a collection of masterpieces from paintings, sculpture and photography to performance and sound, brought together in the UK for the first time in over 60 years

We will be greeted at Tate Modern from 10.30am for welcome teas and coffees served in the Starr Cinema Foyer at 11am.  At 11.30am we will be given a one hour introductory lecture presentation followed at 12.30pm by a buffet lunch (which Tate Modern does well.)

From 1.30pm onwards we can enjoy the exhibition at our leisure for as long as we wish.

Inclusive prices are £52, £44 for Art Fund Members,  and £33 for Tate Members.

THIS VISIT IS NOW FULL

Email visits.tasch@gmail.com for further information

Parham is one of the country’s finest Elizabethan houses and is set at the foot of the South Downs in West Sussex.  This beautiful place has changed little over the centuries and remains a family home.

We will travel by coach from Chiswick to reach Parham by 10.15a.m. for coffee before our tour of the house.  We will then have lunch (included in our price) before a tour of the gardens and return coach drive to Chiswick in late afternoon. 

The cost which includes the coach, entry to the house and gardens, coffee and light lunch is £60 per head.   

This is now FULL

Email  visits.tasch@gmail.com  for further information

Owing to the popularity of our first tour in January this will be our second morning tour of Battersea Power Station led by Ian Swankie.

This is a walking tour of the iconic former power station with its famous four chimneys. The vast scale of the building can only be appreciated close up.

On this walk we'll see the glitzy new apartment blocks built by well-known architects including Norman Foster and Frank Gehry, then we'll explore the power station building inside and out. Its a triumph of redevelopment combining new retail, commercial and residential spaces, while maintaining many elements of the industrial heritage.

We'll hear about the construction of the original power station between 1929 to 1955, its importance for London, its decommissioning, dereliction, and recent multi-billion-pound rebirth.

At the end of the walk those who wish to see the view from the top can book to ascend one of the chimneys in lift 109 after the tour.

This visit is now full, but please email visits.tasch@gmail.com for any cancellations

Price for the walking tour is £18 per person which includes a high quality head set

Exact timing and meeting place will be finalised nearer the date, but there will definitely be time for coffee before the walk and lunch afterwards if wanted.

Email visits.tasch@gmail.com for further iinformation

Our overseas tour will run from 16th-20th April. 

Full details can be found here. Brochures will be available at the lectures.
For further information please email janice21.tasch@gmail.com.

This tour is now fully booked.

A history of London Bridge and its medical miscellany

For 700 years London Bridge was the city’s only land crossing of the Thames and, once on the south bank there was freedom from the City’s controls. The walk will explore the neighbourhood this created, with hospitals at the bridge foot - first St Thomas’s and then Guys - a central component.  

Hospitals originally offered hospitality, something expanded by the coaching inns, and we visit many of the stable yard entrances which survive, among them The Tabard where Chaucer’s pilgrims gathered before their journey to Canterbury. We will learn too of ‘foul’ wards and unearth evidence of the sex industry and dangers of infection at the heart of the country’s greatest port.

The Old Operating Theatre Museum & Herb Garret

Housed in the attic of the early eighteenth century church of the old St Thomas’s Hospital, this atmospheric museum offers a unique insight into the history of medicine and surgery. The original timber framed Herb Garret was once used to store herbs for patients’ medicines and in 1822 an operating theatre was included. Predating anaesthetics and antiseptics, it is the oldest surviving surgical theatre in Europe.

Access to the attic is through a narrow 52 step spiral staircase.

We will meet at 11 am near London Bridge for a two hour guided walk with Charlie Forman.  After a break for lunch (own expense) with a wide range of places from which to choose around Borough Market,  we will reconvene at 2.30pm at The Old Operating Theatre for a 90 minute visit including a 45 minute talk.

Cost for the walk and visit is £22.

Booking will open at our lecture on 8 February.

Email visits.tasch@gmail.com for further information

 

Leighton House is the former home and studio of the leading Victorian artist Frederick, Lord Leighton (1830-1896). It is unique among the capital's museums in combining an exceptional collection of Victorian art with the intimacy of a private home. The highlight of any visit is the extraordinary Arab Hall which reflects Leighton's fascination with the Middle East where he travelled widely. Also not to be missed is Leighton's painting studio on the first floor, with it's large north facing window, picture slot and screen.

Sambourne House (previously known as 18 Stafford terrace) was built in 1871 by Joseph Gordon Davis and was the home of Punch cartoonist Edward Linley Sambourne, his wife Marion, their two children and their live-in servants from 1875. The house gives an insight into the personal lives of the Sambourne family, and also provides a rare example of what was known as an “Aesthetic interior” or “House Beautiful” style.

We meet at 11am for a private guided tour of Leighton House. Tea/coffee (own expense) are available from 10.30 in their cafe.

After a break for lunch which can be taken at Leighton House, in Holland Park, or on Kensington High Street, we meet again for a 2pm private guided tour of Sambourne House a short walk away.

Cost for the 2 private tours is £38.00 per person.

Final details will be sent out a week before the visit.

This Visit is now full

For further information please contact visits.tasch@gmail.com

We kick off our 2024 visits with a morning guided tour of Battersea Power Station led by Ian Swankie.

This is a walking tour of the iconic former power station with its famous four chimneys. The vast scale of the building can only be appreciated close up.

On this walk we'll see the glitzy new apartment blocks built by well-known architects including Norman Foster and Frank Gehry, then we'll explore the power station building inside and out. Its a triumph of redevelopment combining new retail, commercial and residential spaces, while maintaining many elements of the industrial heritage.

We'll hear about the construction of the original power station between 1929 to 1955, its importance for London, its decommissioning, dereliction, and recent multi-billion-pound rebirth.

At the end of the walk those who wish to see the view from the top can book to ascend one of the chimneys in lift 109 after the tour.

Price for the walking tour is £15.00 per person.

Exact timing and meeting place will be finalised nearer the date, but there will definitely be time for coffee before the walk and lunch afterwards if wanted. 

This visit is now fully booked but we are hoping to arrange a further tour so if interested please contact visits.tasch@gmail.com

We are delighted to have secured group tickets for this forthcoming and eagerly anticipated exhibition. It is the first UK one dedicated to the work of French couturière Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel, charting the establishment of the House of CHANEL and the evolution of her iconic design style which continues to influence the way women dress today.
 

We have 10 tickets for entry to the exhibition at 10am and another 10 at 10.30am.
 

Cost: £21.60 but for Art Fund members it is £10.80.
 

This Visit is now fully booked.

To be placed on the waitlist please email visits.tasch@gmail.com and please let us know if you are an Art Fund member. 

“In Case of Emergency”

We have supported Koestler Arts (the arts in prison charity) for several years particularly with awards to young offenders at HMP Feltham.

Last year several of our members visited the exhibition and were impressed and moved by the prisoners' artwork, so this year we have arranged a free guided tour of the exhibition at The Royal Festival Hall at 10.30am on November 15th. The address of the exhibition is: Exhibition Space, Level 1, RFH, Southbank Centre, and we will meet at the entrance to the exhibition at 10.20am.
 

If you would like to book a place please contact visits.tasch@gmail.com.

If you cannot manage this date, the exhibition runs from November 2nd to December 17th .

 Starting at 10.30 a.m. with Blue Badge guide Pepe Martinez.

Pepe is an award winning London Blue Badge Tourist Guide.  He was born in the East End and has lived there all his life.  He is an accredited Institute of Tourist Guiding Trainer. He says:

“London’s East End is one of the most fascinating and dynamic districts. 

It is essentially the story of immigration, wave after wave of people coming to London to seek refuge, looking for a better life.

The Story of the Old East End walking tour tells their story.

Our journey takes us from the Roman settlement, through to the arrival of French Protestants in the 1680’s to the late 1930’s and the arrival of nearly 10,000, mainly Jewish children, who were secretly evacuated out of Nazi occupied Europe  before the outbreak of WW2.”

The walk will begin at Liverpool Street Station outside Eataly Restaurant on Bishopsgate and finish near a well-known Indian restaurant where we will lunch (at our own expense).

Cost of the walk is £15. To book please email visits.tasch@gmail.com.

We meet at 9.45am at the gates of The Royal Hospital for a 90-minute guided tour of the home of the iconic Chelsea Pensioners. We then have a short walk to the Chelsea Physic Garden where we can choose our own lunch in the café before having an hour's guided tour of the garden and its unique collection of plants.

The Royal Hospital Chelsea was founded in 1682 by Charles ll as a refuge for old soldiers of the post Civil War army. Its bespoke buildings were designed by Sir Christopher Wren and since opening its doors to them in 1692, it has continued to provide relief for army veterans, those who “are, or shall be, old, lame, or infirm in ye service of the Crowne.”

The Physic Garden is the oldest botanical garden in London and one of the oldest and most respected in Europe. Founded in 1673 by The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London for its apprentices to study medicinal plants and their uses, it became one of the most important centres of botany and plant exchange in the world. Chelsea Physic Garden is unique in being the only botanical garden focused on medicinal, herbal and useful plants.

Cost is £32 per person.  To book a place please email visits.tasch@gmail.com. If you find later that you cannot attend please contact us and we will do our best to resell your place.

Final joining details will be sent to you a few days before the visit.

Image Credit: Royal Hospital Chelsea

We meet at Tate Britain for tea/coffee from 11am, followed at 11.30am by a one hour introductory exhibition Lecture with an expert Tate guide, 12.30 buffet lunch and timed tickets to The Rossettis.

This exhibition follows the romance and radicalism of the Rossetti generation, through and beyond the Pre-Raphaelite years: Dante Gabriel, Christina and Elizabeth (née Siddal). Visitors will get to experience world-renowned works from their boundary-pushing careers.

The Rossettis’ approach to art, love and lifestyles are considered revolutionary, and this will be thoroughly explored in an immersive show, using spoken poetry, drawings, paintings, photography, design and more.

This is the first retrospective of Dante Gabriel Rossetti at Tate and the largest exhibition of his iconic pictures in two decades.

It will also be the most comprehensive exhibition of Elizabeth Siddal’s work for 30 years.

The Rossettis will take a fresh look at the fascinating myths surrounding the unconventional relationships between Dante Gabriel Rossetti , Elizabeth Siddal, Fanny Cornforth and Jane Morris.

Inclusive prices are £50, £41 for Art Fund Members and £31 for Tate Members. To book please email visits.tasch@gmail.com.

We meet at Temple Tube Station in the morning for a springtime London Legal Walk combined with a private tour of the fabulous Royal Courts of Justice.

The walk will include some of the beautiful Inns of Court where barristers have their Chambers. There are four Inns altogether - Gray's Inn, Inner Temple, Lincoln's Inn and Middle Temple. We will hear about the development of these Inns of Court and how legal training has evolved over many centuries.

The Royal Courts of Justice were opened by Queen Victoria in 1882. With approximately 1000 rooms, 35 long corridors and 19 court rooms The Royal Courts of Justice are known to be one of the largest courts in Europe. The Great Central Hall alone is about 238' long, 48' wide and 80' high.

We may get the opportunity to listen in on a court case if the schedule allows.

Cost is £25 per person. This Visit is now fully booked. To be placed on the waitlist please email visits.tasch@gmail.com.

Our next overseas visit will be to Lisbon from April 24 - 28. 

Please contact Janice Rainsbury at janice21.tasch@gmail.com if you would like further details.

This trip is now fully booked.

Once the top-secret home of World War Two codebreakers, Bletchley Park is now a vibrant heritage attraction. We can expect a fascinating day out, exploring the Bletchley Park stories through immersive films, interactive displays, museum collections and faithfully recreated WW2 rooms.

We will be able to join one of their standard hour-long, guided outdoor walking tours and then spend time exploring in our own time. Refreshments are available in either the Block C coffee shop or Hut 4 Café. Alternatively, you may wish to bring your own picnic to enjoy in the picturesque grounds.

We will be travelling by coach from Heathfield Terrace (next to Chiswick Town Hall), leaving at 9.15a.m. and returning late afternoon. 

The price for the coach and entry to Bletchley is £36 per person. This visit is now sold out.

Final joining details will be sent to you a few days before the visit.

We are revisiting two very popular venues that were oversubscribed first time around. In the morning we visit The Garrick Club, where after coffee we have a private guided tour. The Club was founded in 1831and moved to its present premises in 1864. It houses the largest and most significant collection of British theatrical works of art and has over a 1000 paintings, drawings and pieces of sculpture on display. Artists represented in the collection include Johan Zoffany, Thomas Lawrence and John Everett Millais, whilst paintings of every British actor of note, from David Garrick to Michael Gambon, hang on the Club walls. Many of the major literary, theatrical and artistic personalities of the last two centuries have been members, including Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, Henry Irving, WS Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. Our tour will take in all the main rooms of the Club and point out the highlights from the collection.
 

In the afternoon, after some free time for lunch, we meet at The Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. There we will have a private backstage tour which will include an introduction to the colourful history of the theatre, and find out what it takes to stage a production in one of the world's leading theatres.
 

Cost £30 per person. This Visit is now fully booked. To be placed on the waitlist, please email visits.tasch@gmail.com.

Please note there is a dress code for The Garrick Club. Dress should be formal smart casual, no jeans, denims, shorts or gym shoes. Men should wear a jacket and collared shirt and ideally also a tie.

We meet at Tate Modern for tea/coffee from 11am, followed at 11.30am by a one hour introductory exhibition Lecture with an expert Tate guide,  12.30 buffet lunch and timed tickets to Cézanne.

‘With an apple, I will astonish Paris’,  Cézanne once claimed. Leaving his native Aix-en-Provence for the French capital in his 20s, this is precisely what he did. Cézanne's still lifes, landscapes and paintings of bathers were to give licence to generations of artists to break the rule book. The history of painting was never to be the same again.

Focusing on the many tensions and contradictions in Cézanne's work, this exhibition seeks to understand the artist in his own context, as an ambitious young painter proudly from the Mediterranean South, yet eager to make it in metropolitan Paris.

Featuring many works shown for the first time in the UK, the show will follow his struggle between seeking official recognition and joining the emerging impressionists before relentlessly pursuing his own unique language. We will witness an artist wrestling with what it means to be a modern painter while remaining deeply sceptical about the world he lived in, from political unrest to a continually accelerating way of life.

Inclusive ticket prices are £47, £38 for Art Fund Members and £28 for Tate Members.

This Visit is now fully booked. If you would like to be placed on the waitlist, please email visits.tasch@gmail.com.

We meet at London Bridge Station at 10.30am for a guided walking tour of Southwark, exploring its less visited sites and taking in its over 1,000 years of history. The area has seen everything from princes to pirates, prisons to playhouses, plus more. We will hear about the social history of the area,  as well as its many connections with the great and the good of the literary, academic and culinary worlds.

Our walk finishes at The Globe, where we have our lunch in their café (at own cost) followed by a guided tour of the Globe Theatre at 1.45.

The Globe we see today is the third Globe. The first opened in 1599 and was built by The Lord Chamberlain's Men, the company for whom Shakespeare wrote and which he part-owned. In 1613 a mis-fired prop canon caused the thatched roof to catch fire and the theatre burned to the ground. It was rebuilt a year later, operating until it was closed down by parliamentary decree in 1642. The current Globe Theatre opened in 1997 after many years of campaigning by the founder of the Shakespeare's Globe Trust, Sam Wanamaker.

Cost - £25.00 per person.  Includes guided Southwark walk and tour of the Globe Theatre.   

To book a place please contact visits.tasch@gmail.com. 

We meet at Tate Britain for tea/coffee at 11am, followed at 11.30am by a one hour introductory Exhibition lecture, 12.30pm buffet lunch and 1.30pm visit to the Walter Sickert.

The first major retrospective of Sickert at Tate for over 60 years, this exhibition explores how he had an often radical, distinctive approach to setting and subject matter. From working off detailed sketches to taking inspiration from news photography, these were the tools he used to depict his vision of every day life.

A former actor, he had a flair and fascination for all things theatrical, including performers in music halls crafted on canvas, and nude portraits staged in intimate, domestic settings.

Much like the man, his art was complex. Creative and colourful, his body of work was ever-changing and can be interpreted in different ways. His own self portraits for example show how he evolved from his beginnings as an actor and artistic apprentice to becoming one of the most gifted and influential artists of his time.

Inclusive ticket prices will be £43, £35.50 for Art Fund Members and £27 for Tate Members.

To book a place please contact visits.tasch@gmail.com. 

We travel by coach to Eltham Palace where we start our day with a morning guided tour of the house at 11am.

Once a favoured medieval palace, then a Tudor royal residence, only the Great Hall built for Edward IV in the 1470’s, survives today. The palace then fell into decline with parts either demolished or decayed so that little was left when in the 1930’s millionaires Stephen and Virginia Courtauld converted the ruins into a luxurious Art Deco mansion.  Several rooms on the 1st floor opened to visitors for the first time in 2015.  The 20th century garden is 19 acres and broadly Arts and Crafts and laid out on two levels.   The principal remains of the medieval palace are the north bridge, moat walls and buttress.

After a light lunch in the cafe (own expense) we have a tour of the extensive gardens before returning by coach to Chiswick.

Cost - £34.00 per person.  Includes transport, admission and the two guided tours. Those who have a valid National Art Pass membership card or English Heritage membership card on the day pay only £22.00.

This Visit is now fully booked. If you would like to be placed on the waitlist, please email visits.tasch@gmail.com.

We are delighted to have been able to secure a group visit to Prince Charles’ famous gardens at Highgrove.  We will leave Chiswick by coach at 9.30a.m. to arrive at Highgrove for 12.30pm.  We will make a brief stop on the way.

Our tour of Highgrove Gardens will commence at 1pm and will last 90 minutes.   We will have an expert garden guide for the tour of these highly individual gardens showcasing the prince's own horticultural ideas and giving insight into his creativity and imagination. There will then be time for tea in the Orchard Tea Room (not included in the price) and a visit to the Highgrove Estate Shop before we leave for the journey back to Chiswick. Unfortunately, we are unable to make a block booking or order tea in advance but we are assured that there will be space for us in the tea room.

We are unable to include lunch on this occasion so suggest that everybody should bring their own refreshments with them.  However, we will be making a stop at a motorway service station on the way so snacks may be purchased there.

We are required to bring photographic identification (i.e. passport, driving licence, bus pass).  Alternatively, a bank card is acceptable.

Cost to include coach and Gardens entrance:  £55 per person.

This Visit is now fully booked.

This vibrant area of London may not be what you were expecting.  Sights include an elegant Edwardian Baroque Town Hall, one of London’s oldest cinemas, Georgian almshouses and a windmill – not forgetting of course one of London’s liveliest markets selling an amazing variety of goods from wigs to fish and religious artefacts!  We learn of the area’s past as a centre for music hall artistes and its recent regeneration as a centre for entertainment, as well as the history of London’s African Caribbean community and some of that community’s leading ‘movers and shakers’ of today.

After our walk we have lunch inside Brixton Prison where lunch is cooked and served by prisoners at The Clink Restaurant.  The Clink Charity's aim is to reduce reoffending through the training and rehabilitation of prisoners. The food is of a very high standard and regularly features in the top 10 restaurants in London on Trip Advisor.

The prisoners work up to 40-hours a week simulating a professional working environment whilst working towards gaining their City & Guilds qualifications.  Prisoners with 6 to 18 months of their service left serve as volunteers for the programme and graduates are helped to find accommodation upon release which offers them a real chance to return to the community and turn their lives around – prisoners are almost 50% less likely to reoffend by entering the programme.

All those who booked for this visit in 2020 will be given priority, or a refund if they cannot make the new date.

This Visit is now fully booked.

The first major exhibition devoted to the international prominence of the legendary Russian goldsmith and the importance of his little known London branch.

With a focus on Fabergé's Edwardian high society clientele, the exhibition will shine a light on his triumphs in Britain as well as a global fascination with the joyful opulence of his creations.

Following on from our February lecture we have managed to secure 12 tickets for entry to the exhibition at 10.15am and a further 12 for entry at 10.30am on  Thursday March 3rd.

COST - £16.20  per person. The booking form can be downloaded here.

Come and visit the wonderful city of Bath on this one hour virtual tour with Katherine Alcock! Hear the legend of the city’s founding, see its astonishing architecture and learn just what is so special about its mysterious springs. We’ll take a stroll back through time, past Roman Baths, Benedictine monks and the cream of Georgian high-society. Come and meet some of the most extraordinary figures and buildings from Bath’s past.

Katherine is an historian, tour guide and writer based in the UK. She has featured regularly on the Travel Channel’s ‘Mysteries at the Museum’ and ‘Beyond the Unknown’, and has appeared on the BBC News, BBC Radio London and BBC Radio Birmingham. She is a qualified Blue Badge Guide, is the current Chair of the City of Westminster Guide Lecturers’ Association and was named the London Blue Badge Guide of the Year for the class of 2020. 

We of course have to pay our guides so we ask that you kindly contribute a minimum of £5 per person each time you join us for a visit.

Payment to The Arts Society Chiswick - Sort code: 23-05-80, Account no: 14258698, Reference: Visits

If guests would like to join us for this virtual visit they would be most welcome. Please email visits.tasch@gmail.com for information about payment and receiving the Zoom link.

Professional Rome tourist guide Stuart Harvey leads you on a voyage of discovery through the ruins of the Roman Forum, the heart of the ancient city of Rome and its empire. Meet gods, goddesses and emperors; learn about the temples, roman arches and basilicas; visit the Senate House; see where Julius Caesar was cremated, and much much more along the way.

Stuart has worked in educational tourism for almost 30 years, and is both a London Blue Badge Tourist Guide and a qualified Rome Tourist Guide. Using video and photos to showcase Rome, his relaxed style of communication will give you an entertaining tour that is easy on the ear, but also informative and historically accurate. He has lived in Rome for nearly 20 years.

We of course have to pay our guides so we ask that you kindly contribute a minimum of £5 per person each time you join us for a visit.

Payment to The Arts Society Chiswick - Sort code: 23-05-80, Account no: 14258698, Reference: Visits

If guests would like to join us for this virtual visit they would be most welcome. Please email visits.tasch@gmail.com for information about payment and receiving the Zoom link.

Who would have thought there were 6 Royal Palaces in the heart of Westminster within walking distance of each other? Now you know, why not take the walk of all six palaces where reigning monarchs lived?  It starts by going inside a surprising survivor of the medieval Palace of Westminster – its jewel tower. It picks out the remnants of the Palace of Whitehall where its own jewel – the Banqueting House – survives. We stand on the site of Carlton House, home to some of the most overindulgent banquets London has ever seen. Passing by two palaces still lived in by royalty today we finish in front of the one we all recognize as Buckingham Palace, promoted from being a mere House 200 years ago. It’s a heady spin, moving from the 11th century to the 21st in just over two hours. These palaces with their amazing presence have so much to tell of power, extravagance and the pride which led to several falls, one of which proved fatal.

The cost of the walk which starts at 10,30am, to include entrance to the Jewel Tower, is £14. For further details and to book please email visits.tasch@gmail.com. 

East End Tour Part 2 with Pepe Martinez

This  vibrant new virtual tour tells the incredible story of the transformation  that the East End has gone through in recent times.  Just a generation ago it was considered one of the worst slums in Britain; today it is one of the most important areas in Europe  for the .com industries. 

This  tour will take you from the mass Bengali immigration of the 1970’s and give you some of  the key moments in this incredible story.  It will also introduce you to some key figures in its transformation including Banksy and Tracey Emin, before finishing in the middle of Britain’s Silicon Valley. 

We are delighted to welcome back Pepe Martinez.

Pepe is an award winning London Blue Badge Tourist Guide.  He was born in the East End and has lived there all his life.  He is an accredited Institute of Tourist Guiding Trainer and is currently tutoring on the London Blue Badge training course. 

We hope you are enjoying our programme of “virtual” visits, and we have lots more planned.

However we of course have to pay our guides so we ask that you kindly contribute a minimum of £5 per person each time you join us for a visit.

Payment to The Arts Society Chiswick - Sort code: 23-05-80, Account no: 14258698, Reference: Visits

If guests would like to join us for this virtual visit they would be most welcome. Please email visits.tasch@gmail.com for information about payment and receiving the Zoom link.

Discover the splendours of medieval Siena through the wonders of modern technology as Anna leads you through her adopted hometown on this virtual tour. Beginning at the northernmost city gate, learn how Siena became one of Europe’s most important cities in the 13th and 14th centuries. As we walk along an ancient pilgrim’s thoroughfare, enjoy the architecture and local shops as we discuss centuries of history, war, civic pride, and the Palio horse race. We will stop at the world’s longest continuously running bank, admire the Piazza del Campo (where the Palio takes place), and marvel at the city’s glorious black-and-white striped Cathedral, attestation to the city’s illustrious past.

Dr Anna Piperato is passionate about Italian art history and her beloved adopted hometown of Siena (even becoming a baptized member of the She-Wolf District). She earned her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Manchester and now works for Rick Steves’ Europe and guides locally.

We hope you are enjoying our programme of “virtual” visits, and we have lots more planned.

However we of course have to pay our guides so we ask that you kindly contribute a minimum of £5 per person each time you join us for a visit.

Payment to The Arts Society Chiswick - Sort code: 23-05-80, Account no: 14258698, Reference: Visits

If guests would like to join us for this virtual visit they would be most welcome. Please email visits.tasch@gmail.com for information about payment and receiving the Zoom link.

King Henry VIII’s  desire for a divorce broke England away from the Roman Catholic Church and plunged London into 30 years of turmoil changing the religious, social, political and economic life of the city for ever. From violent religious debates outside St. Paul’s Cathedral to Smithfield where Protestants were burnt at the stake for their faith to a Tudor Mansion in a monastery this virtual walk will take you to the places and tell you the stories at the very centre of England’s religious transformation.

Ruth Polling graduated top of her year as the London Blue Badge Tour Guide of the Year 2014.

She is an International History graduate from LSE and she worked in London politics, including working in the House of Commons and the House of Lords, before becoming a guide. In addition to guiding Ruth also lectures and runs training courses on London history and politics.

She says "London is the world’s most diverse, exciting and magical city and I want to share it with you!"

We hope you are enjoying our programme of “virtual” visits, and we have lots more planned.

However we of course have to pay our guides so we ask that you kindly contribute a minimum of £5 per person each time you join us for a visit.

Payment to The Arts Society Chiswick - Sort code: 23-05-80, Account no: 14258698, Reference: Visits

If guests would like to join us for this virtual visit they would be most welcome. Please email visits.tasch@gmail.com for information about payment and receiving the Zoom link.

Chiswick House, built between 1726 and 1729, was the home and greatest architectural achievement of Richard Boyle, third Earl of Burlington. The house intrigued visitors from the first moment it was built and still has the power to surprise today as you step from the cool, crisp neo-Palladian exterior into gilded rooms hung with rich velvet.  Join Dr Esmé Whittaker for a virtual tour of the house and collections and to find out how Chiswick House was used in the 18th century – as a bold architectural experiment, a space to display an extensive art collection, and as a place for entertaining as well as quiet contemplation.

Dr Esmé Whittaker is Curator of Collections and Interiors at English Heritage with responsibility for two 18th-century villas, Chiswick House and Marble Hill House. Before joining English Heritage she was an Assistant Curator at the V&A and worked on the major exhibition The Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement 1860-1900. She completed her M.A. and Ph.D at the Courtauld Institute of Art, focussing on the Aesthetic and Arts and Crafts movements. Her Ph.D research informed her book, Arts and Crafts houses in the Lake District, which she co-authored with Matthew Hyde (Frances Lincoln, 2014).

We hope you are enjoying our programme of “virtual” visits, and we have lots more planned.

However we of course have to pay our guides so we ask that you kindly contribute a minimum of £5 per person each time you join us for a visit.

Payment to The Arts Society Chiswick - Sort code: 23-05-80, Account no: 14258698, Reference: Visits

If guests would like to join us for this virtual visit they would be most welcome. Please email visits.tasch@gmail.com for information about payment and receiving the Zoom link.

photo copyright Richard Bryant

Alnwick Castle in Northumberland has been the home of the Percy family, now the Dukes of Northumberland, for over 700 years. From its beginnings as a fortress defending the English-Scottish border, the castle and its inhabitants have been involved in major events of British history, from the Wars of the Roses and the Gunpowder Plot to the World Wars of the 20th century.

Today, the 12th Duke of Northumberland and his family live in the castle’s State Rooms, which were restored in the 19th century and host one of the finest private collections of Old Master paintings, furniture and ceramics in the country.

Join Alnwick Castle’s head guide, Daniel Watkins, for a virtual visit, taking in the medieval defensive structures and Capability Brown landscape around the castle grounds, as well as the State Rooms and highlights from the castle’s collection.

After your tour of Alnwick Castle, there will be an opportunity to ask any questions and find out more about this fascinating site and its place in history.

We hope our members are enjoying our programme of “virtual” visits, and we have lots more planned.

However we of course have to pay our guides so we ask that you kindly contribute a minimum of £5 per person each time you join us for a visit.

Payment to The Arts Society Chiswick - Sort code: 23-05-80, Account no: 14258698, Reference: Visits  

If guests would like to join us for this virtual visit they would be most welcome. Please email visits.tasch@gmail.com for information about payment and receiving the Zoom link.

The humble toilet is, for those of us lucky enough to live in the developed world, a fixture of our lives, but have you ever wondered where it came from?

Join London Blue Badge Guide (and one of the City’s infamous “Loo Ladies”), Katherine Alcock, to hear all about the origins of this extraordinary item, the fascinating people who fought to bring it into the world, and the issues surrounding health and sanitation facing the globe today.

We hope you are enjoying our programme of “virtual” visits, and we have lots more planned.

However we of course have to pay our guides so we ask that you kindly contribute a minimum of £5 per person each time you join us for a visit.

Payment to The Arts Society Chiswick - Sort code: 23-05-80, Account no: 14258698, Reference: Visits

Whilst Covid restrictions are in place and a visit to the local panto is not going to happen, we decided to bring a little bit of Christmas cheer to you in the comfort of your own homes.  This live online virtual tour “The Spirit of Christmas” will be celebrating all things Christmassy. Presented by London Blue Badge Tourist Guides Pepe Martinez and Simon Whitehouse, this extra-special Christmas extravaganza will be in two parts.  Part One will explore the history of all those Christmas traditions we now take for granted such as Christmas crackers, mince pies, Christmas cards and the Christmas tree.  After a short interval Part Two will be a virtual version of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. We should finish around 4.30pm.

We hope you are enjoying our programme of “virtual” visits, and we have lots more planned.

However, we of course have to pay our guides and on this special occasion we have two, so we ask that you kindly contribute a minimum of £10 per person this time.

Payment to The Arts Society Chiswick - Sort code: 23-05-80, Account no: 14258698, Reference: Visits

Join actor and London Blue Badge Guide Simon Whitehouse on this virtual tour exploring 350 years of London’s West End Theatre heritage. From plays and musicals to opera and ballet, we remember the star studded first nights (and the odd spectacular flop!)

Highlights include:

•    The story of theTheatre Royal, Drury Lane: the birthplace of West End theatre & the world’s oldest theatre site in continuous use since 1662.  

•    The Agatha Christie Memorial and the story behind the longest running play in the world; ‘The Mousetrap’

•    The Actors Church where two actresses are laid to rest & where we uncover the somewhat darker origins of Shaw’s “Pygmalion”.

•    The moves and shakers after whom theatre are named: Garrick; Coward; Novello and who really owns Theatreland today…

•    The Savoy theatre where theatrical technical history was made in 1881

•    As Hallowe’en approaches we include the dramatic murder of a Victorian star actor whose presence still haunts the Adelphi theatre today & the mysterious tradition of the ‘ghost light’…

Along the way Simon will regal you with a wealth of theatrical gossip and  anecdotes and you’ll learn the origin of backstage phrases like ‘ham acting’ ‘winging it’ and why actors ‘break a leg’….

Simon is an actor, narrator, teacher, presenter and award winning Blue Badge London guide. Throughout his career Simon has worked with the BBC, the Royal Opera House, the National Gallery, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre & London Walks among many others. As a Blue Badge guide Simon guides people from all over the world and all walks of life, including The Arts Society,  U3A groups, international student groups, families and individuals (and even the occasional Hollywood star - and no, he’s not telling). Simon’s repertoire includes a wide variety of themes and subjects, although he has a particular passion for theatre, literature and art history.  Whatever the subject, Simon will weave a wonderful story from it.

We hope you are enjoying our programme of “virtual” visits, and we have lots more planned.

However we of course have to pay our guides so we ask that you kindly contribute a minimum of £5 per person each time you join us for a visit.

Payment to The Arts Society Chiswick - Sort code: 23-05-80, Account no: 14258698, Reference: Visits

The Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew are not only a UNESCO World Heritage Site, since 2003, but internationally renowned gardens which contain the largest living plant collection in the world.

You will learn that it is not only a place of natural beauty but also a scientific institution at the forefront of saving our planet from extinction. You will hear about the history of the gardens,  fascinating stories of rare plants, see the smallest royal palace in England and meet the “the loneliest bachelor in the world”.

Patricia Gentry has a MA in Japanese and Japanese history and has been working as Blue Badge Guide in the UK for more than 20 years now. She is living in Kew and works as a guide and lecturer (in 5 languages including Japanese). She also runs a company organising educational tours to Britain. Her interests are broad and she offers a range of in depth tours on historic subjects in London and around Britain.

Her personal favourite is the Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew and she guides there regularly. 

You will be able to ask all your questions at the end. This virtual tour will be given via Zoom with high quality photos and films and will give you lots of tips for your next real life visit to Kew Gardens.

**A big thank you to all those who donated towards our “visit” to the East End last week.We hope you are enjoying our online programme and will continue to do so. To help us continue with this work we would really appreciate a donation of £5 each time you join us for a Visit.  Payment should be made to: The Arts Society Chiswick, Sort Code 23-05-80, Account Number 14258698. Please put your name, followed by VISITS in the reference box.

The East End is one of London’s most fascinating and dynamic districts.  It is essentially the story of immigration, wave after wave of people coming to London to seek refuge, looking for sanctuary and a better life. The Story of the Old East End Virtual tour tells their story.  Using powerful images, video and google street view, our journey takes us from the arrival of French Huguenots in the 1680’s through to the more than 10,000 Jewish children arriving into London on the Kindertransport at Liverpool Street station in 1939. 

Pepe Martinez is an award winning London Blue Badge Tourist Guide.  He was born in the East End and has lived there all his life.  He is a accredited Institute of Tourist Guiding Trainer and is currently tutoring on the London Blue Badge training course. 
 

**No charge to members but a donation to help cover our costs would be much appreciated.

Photo: Boys marching out of the London Foundling Hospital on the last day, 1926. Courtesy Coram

Our visit is in the morning.

Thomas Coram (1668-1751) returned to London in 1704 after eleven years in America and found the city to be a powerhouse of industry and wealth but was also noisy and disease-ridden.  Many parents, unable to care for their babies due to poverty or illegitimacy, chose to abandon them in the street.

After years of campaigning, Thomas Coram finally received a Royal Charter from King George II in 1739, enabling him to establish his Foundling Hospital to care for and educate some of London’s most vulnerable children. Supporters included the artist William Hogarth and the composer George Frideric Handel, who helped establish the Hospital as one of London’s most fashionable venues. Hogarth encouraged leading artists of the day to donate work, thereby establishing the UK’s first public art gallery. Handel donated an organ and conducted annual benefit concerts of Messiah in the Hospital’s chapel. In this way their creative generosity set the template for the ways in which the arts can support philanthropy.

From 1741 when the first babies were admitted, to 1954 when the last pupil was placed in foster care, the Foundling Hospital cared for and educated around 25,000 children.

The Foundling Museum opened in 2004.

The cost of the tour is £15.00 and the booking form can be downloaded here.

Armourers’ Hall is a striking Georgian building built in the neo-Palladian style just a short walk from Bank Station and seconds away from Moorgate.  It is one of the few livery halls to have escaped The Blitz and is the home of The Armourers’ & Brasiers’ Company, founded in 1322.

Our morning tour is conducted by the Clerk and last about 90 minutes.  He will talk on Livery Companies in general (the Armourers' and Brasiers’ in particular), as well as the present Hall and the history and role of armour in medieval warfare.   Artefacts include a portrait of the infamous Ann Vavasour, as well as armour and clocks etc.

The cost of the tour is £25.00 and the booking form can be downloaded here.

This Visit is now sold out. If you wish to be placed on the waitlist, please contact visits.tasch@gmail.com.

Sandycombe Lodge was built by 1813 to the designs of England’s great landscape painter, JMW Turner, working here as his own architect to create a quiet retreat for himself away from the pressures of the London art world. It also provided a home for his father, old William, in retirement from his trade as a barber and wigmaker in Covent Garden. With old William’s declining health and changes in his own life, Turner sold the house in 1826.

Our connoisseur tour provides a detailed account of the history and architecture of Turner’s largest work of art, the artist’s time here, the restoration project and process of conservation. The tour is led by a Trustee with historical background and a thorough knowledge of the house and its history. 

Cost -  £12 per person. The booking form can be downloaded here.

This vist has been postponed until next year. Details to follow.

This Visit is now sold out. If you wish to be placed on the waitlist, please contact visits.tasch@gmail.com.

This 70 acre site in rural Hertfordshire has more than 20 of Henry Moore’s iconic sculptures and is the best place to appreciate the life and work of one of Britain’s most famous artists.

Our day begins with tea/coffee and we are joined by a friendly and knowledgeable guide who will guide us through the sculpture gardens, exhibition and studios, as well as ‘Hoglands’ the Moore’s family home for over 40 years.  The 16th century Aisled Barn is the only place where it is possible to see Moore’s remarkable tapestries.

The exhibition in 2019 is a new one.   ‘Henry Moore Drawings’ includes over 150 works from the collections of the Henry Moore Foundation, Tate and other British museums and it will be the largest exhibition devoted entirely to Moore’s drawings in 40 years.

Lunch is included and there will be time to browse in the shop and perhaps enjoy a cup of tea before heading back to Chiswick.

Cost per person - £50. The booking form can be downloaded here.

Glasgow June 17 - 21

Unfortunately this will not now take place as there was insufficient interest. Please accept our apologies.

Steeped in history, Chenies Manor House is a Grade I listed gabled manor house begun in the 15th century, with 16th century alterations and award-winning gardens.  Bought in 1956 by Colonel and Mrs Macleod Matthews, it is now the home of Charles and Boo Macleod.

The estate passed by marriage from the Cheyne family to Sir John Russell, Tudor courtier and statesman (later the 1st Duke of Bedford). Sir John made alterations to accommodate visits by the royal court, but after the family seat moved to Woburn the house lost its importance and by 1728 much had been demolished.  However, the current house is mainly unaltered since restoration repairs and modernisation were undertaken in 1829 when the younger son of the 4th Duke was appointed to the living of Chenies.  The Macleod Mathews have continued to bring the 16th-century spaces of the house back to life.

Surrounded by five acres of enchanting gardens in various sections linked by lawns and courtyards, attractions include a white garden, a sunken garden and colourful well stocked borders.

Ours will be a private visit and include guided tours of both the house and garden, as well as lunch.

In the afternoon we enjoy a private visit to Grade I listed Milton’s Cottage before returning to Chiswick.

Milton, his wife and daughters came to Chalfont St. Giles to flee the Bubonic plague in London, and it was here that he completed ‘Paradise Lost’ and was inspired to write its sequel ‘Paradise Regained’.  The cottage was secured for the nation after a public appeal to prevent it being moved to the USA (Queen Victoria opened the subscription list in 1887), and it has been open to the public as a museum ever since. As well as early editions of his best-known poetic works, it is a treasure trove of his iconic prose writings, many of which focus on freedoms in government, religion, speech and the press.

The cost is £49.00 per person and the booking form can be downloaded here.

This visit is now fully booked.

The Collection Care department is responsible for the long-term preservation of the archive collection held at Kew.   Through programmes of environmental management, conservation treatment and research, the aim is to extend the useable life of documents.  Modern conservation emphasises the prevention of further damage to an item by trying to stabilise the condition first rather than undertaking extensive repair which may cause further damage.  The environment in which items are kept has a major impact on their well-being, especially to paper-based collections.

This morning our talk explains the work of the department and is followed by a tour.

The cost of this visit is £15.00 per person. 

The Booking Form can be downloaded here.

This visit is now sold out.

We meet at Spencer House in the morning for tea/coffee followed by a guided tour of this magnificent town house, the city's only great eighteenth-century aristocratic private palace to survive intact. Built between 1756 and 1766 for John, First Earl Spencer, it has regained its full splendour after a ten-year restoration project.  The nine State Rooms are among the first neo-classical interiors in Europe, while elegant mural decorations, a screen of gilded palm trees, superb gilded furniture and fine paintings, are equally impressive.

After lunch (not included, but there are plenty of options nearby) we move to Marlborough House for a guided tour.   This impressive building, designed by Christopher Wren and with the status of a royal palace, was for over a century the London residence of the Dukes of Marlborough.  Other occupants have included three UK Dowager Queens, and three Princes of Wales.

Marlborough House is now the home to the Commonwealth Secretariat and was extensively renovated by the British Government between 1989 and 1993. The Fine Rooms contain exquisite murals, tapestries, paintings and sculptures which relay the history of the building and its various occupants over many centuries.

Cost - £25.00 per person (includes tea/coffee at Spencer House and private guided tours as above. Lunch is not included).

The UK is scheduled to leave the European Union at 11pm UK time on Friday, 29 March 2019.   Late afternoon on the same day we are scheduled for a guided tour of The Houses of Parliament and hope to meet our local MP Ruth Cadbury either pre or post our tour, schedules permitting on this historic day.

Our 75 minute tour recounts the history of the Palace of Westminster and describes how the business and traditions of both Houses contribute to the day to day workings of the UK Parliament.  We follow in the footsteps of the Queen at the State Opening of Parliament as she leaves the Robing Room and passes through the Royal Gallery to take her seat on the gilded throne in the stunning Lords Chamber. From Central Lobby, the heart of Parliament, we enter the rooms of the Commons before standing in the Chamber itself, home to the Speaker’s Chair, the green benches and many lively political debates. In St Stephen’s Hall, we hear of the Suffragettes and other ‘Votes for Women!’ campaigners before finishing in medieval Westminster Hall.

This visit is fully booked. If you wish to be placed on the Waiting List please email visits.tasch@gmail.com.

This morning we visit the V&A for the much-anticipated Christian Dior exhibition.  Our day starts with coffee and an introductory talk, with tickets for the exhibition allocated to time slots of 12.15pm and 12.30pm.

The exhibition ‘Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams’ is the largest and most comprehensive exhibition ever staged in the UK on the House of Dior.   Spanning 1947 to the present day, it traces the history and impact of one of the 20th century’s most influential couturiers. Original Dior pieces from the museum’s archive, together with additionally sourced items including accessories, fashion photography, film, makeup, illustrations and Dior’s personal possessions, all sit alongside 200 haute couture ensembles. Items worn by high-profile clients including Princess Margaret, Nancy Mitford and Margot Fonteyn are amongst the exhibits.  

Cost - £33.00 per person to include tea/coffee, talk and ticket to the exhibition.

Discounts - £25.00 per person for those with an Art Fund National Art Pass. Those with V&A membership pay £15.00 per person for the talk and tea/coffee and use their membership card for access to the exhibition.

The booking form can be downloaded here.

This tour is now sold out.

In conjuction with Tailored Travel, who organised our very successful visit to Liverpool last year, we are planning our first overseas tour which will run from 22 to 26 October.

Full details can be found on the Tailored Travel website, where you can print off the booking form. Please send this form to Alison Watson in the first instance. 

If you have any questions please contact Alison on 07881825930 or at alison@watsonw4.com. 

The nature of the trip is such that there will be a reasonable amount of walking, so it might not be suitable for those with mobility problems.

Please note that travel insurance is strongly recommended for all trips outside the UK. If you don't have your own please look at the package offered by Tailored Travel, or contact Staysure Insurance, a Travel Affiliate of The Arts Society, which  offers comprehensive travel cover for the over 50s. Unlike many insurance companies, they can offer annual polices for people up to the age of 85 with pre-existing medical conditions. Members of The Arts Society receive 15% off - for a discount code please see the Winter Review or contact Alison.

This visit is now fully booked. Please email  visits.tasch@gmail.com if you would like to be put on the waitlist.

In the morning we meet at the Museum of the Order of St. John (closest station is Farringdon) for a private guided tour of the historic rooms at St. John’s Gate as well as the Priory Church and Crypt, which are just across the road.  The Museum galleries are not included in the guided tour but are free to visit afterwards.

St. John’s Gate (the entrance to the former Priory of St. John) once housed the office of the Master of the Revels and it was here that Shakespeare came to license his plays.  It was also the childhood home of William Hogarth.  Dr Samuel Johnson worked here when it was home to The Gentleman’s Magazine and for many years it was simply used as a tavern. It was acquired in the 1870’s by the revived Order of St. John, and the building was gradually converted to serve as its headquarters as well as that of St. John Ambulance.    The museum tells the story of the Order of St. John, from its origins in the 11th century in Jerusalem to its role today with St. John Ambulance.

Close by is Charterhouse, a former Carthusian Monastery, which we will visit after a light (included) lunch.

Since the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century the building has served as a private mansion, a boy’s school and as an almshouse (which it remains today).  Residents are known as ‘Brothers’ and our tour is led by one of the resident Brothers and provides an in-depth look at the long history of the site and the lifestyle of the Brothers through the centuries.   

Cost: £35 per person.

This tour is now sold out.

Our full day tour by coach takes us to the delightful Kelmscott Manor, the 17th century Grade 1 listed Cotswold retreat of William Morris.   The spiritual home of the Arts and Crafts Movement, Kelmscott Manor is loved for its true craftsmanship, beautiful gardens, and for being totally unspoilt and in harmony with the village and surrounding countryside.

The house contains an outstanding collection of the possessions and works of Morris, his family and associates including items from each of Morris’s London homes, several of which were designed for the Red House at Bexleyheath. Solid oak furniture and seventeenth-century tapestries owned by the original occupants of the Manor are also here and Pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti (joint-tenant with Morris between 1871 and 1874), added his own furniture to the interiors.

The tiny village of Kelmscott has fewer than 100 residents with no shops or public transport. The entire Morris family, William and Jane Morris and their children, are buried in the grounds of nearby St George's church (13th century) and, at the heart of the village, is the Morris Memorial Hall, designed by Ernest Gimson and opened in 1934. The inaugural address was given by George Bernard Shaw, who was romantically involved with May at one time.

After a light lunch at Kelmscott we plan to have a walking tour in the Kelmscott/Lechlade area before returning to London.

Cost - £47.00 per person (including tea/coffee on arrival, introductory talk, guided tour and Ploughman’s lunch).

The booking form can be downloaded here.

This visit is now fully booked. Please email  visits.tasch@gmail.com if you would like to be put on the waitlist.

This morning we leave by coach for Windsor to visit Frogmore House and Savill Garden.

Situated in Home Park in Windsor, Frogmore House is frequently used by the Royal Family for private entertaining, and several generations have influenced the interior. Queen Charlotte’s passion for botany is reflected in one of Frogmore’s principal rooms which is decorated to resemble an arbour open to the skies, and The Cross Gallery was painted with garlands by Princess Elizabeth, daughter of George III and Queen Charlotte.  Victoria, Duchess of Kent lived here for almost 20 years, and works by her and her daughter Queen Victoria are on display. Queen Victoria often visited the house during her widowhood to work on her papers, and watercolours by her daughters, the Princesses Victoria and Louise, can also be seen in the house. A selection of Items from the decommissioned and much-loved Royal Yacht are also on display in the Britannia Room.

After our guided tour we continue to The Savill Garden in Windsor Great Park, where lunch facilities are available and where we can enjoy the gardens before returning to Chiswick. Designed by Sir Edward Savill in the 1930s the garden mixes native and exotic species and each ‘garden within a garden’ has its own attractions.  The Rose Garden takes a fresh and contemporary approach to displaying roses, with roses especially chosen for their scent, strong colour and repeat flowering.

The booking form can be downloaded here.

This tour is now sold out.

We meet this morning for coffee at the London Canal Museum, a former Victorian ice warehouse on the Regent’s Canal.  Our tour explains how ice was transported from Norway for sale in London and explores the history of London’s waterways and the craft and cargo that were carried.  We also see a narrowboat cabin and learn about the people who lived and worked on the canals, and the horses that pulled the boats.

In the afternoon we have a guided walk of the Kings Cross area. After 150 years of industrial use the area north of King's Cross and St. Pancras stations is being transformed into a vibrant new part of the city with homes, shops, offices, galleries, bars, restaurants, schools and even a university.

Cost: £10.00 per person.

The booking form can be downloaded here. 

This visit is now sold out.

Born in New York in 1913 Stanley Picker came to England in 1935 to manage his family’s cosmetic business.  He began collecting art, and had amassed a large and impressive collection of paintings and sculpture by the time of his death in 1982.   Works by Chagall, Lowry, Sutherland, Rodin, Fink and Moore are among this wonderful collection.  An intriguing circular garden gallery was added in 1976 to accommodate his expanding collection and the garden too is delightful.

The house opens for a limited number of pre-arranged visits each year and we have arranged for two guided tours (choice of either a morning or afternoon tour).  Places are limited to 12 people per tour and own transport/car sharing (with which we will assist) is required.

The cost of the visit is £12 per person. 

Our walking tour had to be cancelled last year due to an impending tube strike, but we are pleased to announce that it has been rescheduled for this year.  Our walk starts in the morning from Liverpool Street Station, lasts two hours, and will show us some great examples of Street Art.  It follows on from the fascinating lecture we had last March and although it won’t be led by the person who gave the talk, fingers crossed, it will be someone just as good!

At the end of the walk we have arranged to have lunch in one of the famous Brick Lane curry houses.

This Visit is fully booked.

This morning we have a guided tour of the magnificent neo-Gothic mansion built for William Waldorf Astor.  The mansion, situated on Victoria Embankment, was designed by John Loughborough Pearson and completed in 1895 and, as befitted one of the richest men in the world at that time, no expense was spared -  and it housed the largest strong room in Europe!  It was also one of the first houses in London to have a telephone.  Today, Two Temple Place is owned and run by the Bulldog Trust and dedicated to promoting culture and philanthropy, hosting events and exhibitions throughout the year.

Two Temple Place reopens to the public in January with its 7th annual Winter Exhibition Rhythm & Reaction: The Age of Jazz in Britain.  The exhibition is proudly sponsored by The Arts Society and can be explored at leisure after our tour (it is also the subject of our lecture in April).

Cost - £10.00 per person.

Our 11am tour sold out at our January lecture but we are pleased to advise that a second tour has been arranged for midday on the same day.   

Our visit includes a private lecture and buffet lunch

This is the most comprehensive exhibition of Modigliani’s work ever held in the UK. Emotionally intense portraits and seductive nudes (highly controversial at the time) are a highlight of the exhibition. Also on show are his lesser known radical and thought-provoking sculptures made before The First World War.

Make your own way to Tate Modern where we meet at 11am for tea and coffee, followed by an introductory lecture with an expert guide.   A buffet lunch is then served followed by timed tickets to the exhibition at 1.30pm. ​

£25.00 for Arts Society members who also have Tate membership

£33.00 for Arts Society members with an Art Fund Pass

£40.00 for Arts Society members without either of the above

This tour is now fully booked.

Completed in 1933 the present Freemasons’ Hall is the third building on the site and is one of the finest Art Deco buildings in England. It is Grade II listed (both externally and internally) and was completed in 1933 as a memorial to the Freemasons who died in the First World War. It is the headquarters of the United Grand Lodge of England (Grand Lodge has been in Great Queen Street since 1775) and is the principal meeting place for Masonic Lodges in London. There is a small museum and library and our tour includes the Grand Temple and ceremonial areas.

 Free time for lunch in Covent Garden.

This afternoon we visit the Backstage and the Front of House areas of the Royal Opera House as it prepares to open its doors for the evening performance of Donizetti’s opera ‘Lucia di Lammermoor’. The tour includes an introduction to the colourful history of the theatre and gives an insight into its re-development and aspects of current productions. Since the Royal Opera House is a fully working theatre, areas covered depend very much on what is possible on the day. It may include opportunities to see The Royal Ballet in class, or the magnificent backstage technology in operation, although this cannot be guaranteed.

The tour will start at 10.45am and finish around 3.45pm. Cost £18.00 per person.

If you have any questions regarding this trip please email chdfas.visits@gmail.com.

This visit is now fully booked.

We regret that we have cancelled this tour owing to the scheduled tube strike. We plan on offering a similar tour in 2018. Please contact chdfas.visits@gmail.com for more information. Please note that on Tuesday afternoon the strike was postponed. However, this did not give us enough time to reinstate the walk.

Following the success of our March lecture on Street Art we are organising a guided walking tour to discover some of London's most interesting and amazing graffiti.

Our walk starts at 11am from outside Shoreditch High Street station. This 2 hour walk will show us some great examples of Street Art and follows on from the fascinating lecture we had last March which was very much enjoyed. It won’t be led by the same person who gave the talk but, fingers crossed, someone just as good.

Shoreditch High Street (a London Overground station) is easily reached by taking the District Line and changing at Whitechapel and is one stop on from there.  Allow at least an hour for the journey.

At the end of the walk we have arranged to have lunch in one of the famous Brick Lane curry restaurants. 

The cost is £5.00 for the walk alone, and £20.00 for the walk including the curry in Brick Lane.

If you have any questions regarding this tour please email chdfas.visits@gmail.com.

This tour is now sold out.

We will be travelling from Chiswick by coach and on the way up stopping at The Lowry at Salford where we will have an introductory tour.  We will stay at a 4* hotel in Liverpool for three nights half board and will have a Blue Badge Guide to show us the sights of this wonderful city, to include:

·       A guided city tour

·       The contrasting Anglican and Roman Catholic cathedrals

·       The Walker Art Gallery

·       Tate Liverpool

·       Anthony Gormley’s ‘Another Place’ on Crosby Beach

·       Port Sunlight and the Lady Lever Gallery

·       Princes Street Synagogue

On the way home we will have a tour of Royal Crown Derby.

The cost is £389 for a twin room with a £79 supplement for single accommodation.

The brochure and application form are at:

http://www.tailored-travel.co.uk/chiswickdfas_liverpool_2017

In the first instance please send your application form to Alison Watson, 47 Woodstock Road, London W4 1DT and not directly to Tailored Travel.

Please also contact Alison for any more information on 07881825930 or chdfas.chair@gmail.com.

There are a few places left on this tour but please email chdfas.visits@gmail.com to check availability before sending in your booking form.

It is 200 years since the birth of the great Victorian artist George Frederick Watts, so our visit to his gallery and Artists' Village near Guildford coincides with his bicentennial year. A special exhibition on loan from home and overseas will be on show during this time.  The Artists' Village is a unique 19th and early 20th century art heritage site and Watts Chapel (created by his wife, Mary Watts), is a Grade I listed Arts and Crafts masterpiece (the interior is a unique example of Art Celtic design).

We begin the day with morning tea/coffee, and during the day will have guided tours of Limnerslease House, where G.F. and Mary Watts lived, as well as a tour of the gallery and a light lunch.  There will also be time to see the Artists' Village and chapel as well as the De Morgan Collection of ceramics and delightful shop.

Cost £50.00 per person including lunch (£45.50 for Art Fund members).

(Transportation provided)

If you have any questions regarding this trip please email chdfas.visits@gmail.com.

This trip is now sold  out.

We leave Chiswick by coach to arrive at Highgrove at 11.30am. Following security checks we are invited into the beautiful setting of the Orchard Restaurant where we are served a two course lunch at midday. Menu choices are available on the day of the visit and drinks may be purchased in the restaurant.

Following lunch we will be divided into two groups. Each group will have their own expert garden guide for a two hour tour of these highly individual gardens showcasing the prince's own horticultural ideas and giving insight into his creativity and imagination. There will then be time to visit the Highgrove Estate Shop before we leave for the journey back to Chiswick.

Cost: £56.00 per person.

This visit is now sold out.

At 11am this morning we visit the Shri Saminarayan Mandir (known as the Neasden Temple).

We are shown around the main building before we enter the temple for a short prayer service (called an ‘Arti’), where we can either stand or sit on the marble floor. There is then time to visit the exhibition on Hinduisim as well as watch an interesting video on the construction of the temple.

Lunch, a vegetarian Gujarati buffet, is payable on the day (about £10) and is scheduled for approximately 1pm.

There is ample free parking available, and for those not travelling by car we can arrange car sharing.

Please note that a strict dress code operates within the complex. Specifically, tops must cover the shoulders, chest, navel, and upper arms. Leg-wear must be at least below knee-length. It is also customary to remove shoes within parts of the complex (shoe racks are provided).

The cost is £5.00 per person. 

One of the most popular and influential British artists of the twentieth century returns to Tate Britain for his most comprehensive exhibition yet. An extensive selection of Hockney’s most famous works (painting, drawing, print, photography and video) are all exhibited.

Our day starts with tea and coffee, followed by an introductory lecture in a private room with an expert Tate guide. A buffet lunch will be served prior to timed tickets to the exhibition.

(Own arrangement to and from the museum.)

£25.00 for DFAS members who also have Tate membership

£33.00 for DFAS members with an Art Fund Pass

£40.00 for DFAS members who do not have an Art Fund Pass or have Tate membership.

This visit is now fully booked. Please email  visitschdfas@gmail.com if you would like to be put on the waitlist

Located at 13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, the Sir John Soane Museum is the house and museum of the distinguished 19th century architect Sir John Soane.  The museum is bathed in candlelight during our tour, which will be conducted by one of the museum’s curators.

At Soane’s request, the house has been left untouched since his death – almost 180 years ago.  It’s an intimate, atmospheric place, designed by Soane himself, and filled with his exceptional collection of famous artworks, sculptures, furniture and artefacts. The most famous paintings are two series of pictures by William Hogarth (A Rake’s Progress and An Election), as well as Venetian scenes by Canaletto (including Riva degli Schiavoni considered one of his finest).

 Cost - £24.00 per person (Non-refundable unless the vacancy can be filled)

Included: Private guided tour of the museum, conducted by a curator.

Please note that stilettos and narrow heels are not permitted, so as to protect the 200 year old wooden flooring.

This visit is now fully booked.

In 1888 the architect C R Ashbee set up the Guild and School of Handicraft in the slums of Whitechapel. The purpose was not only to nurture craft skills and market fine objects, but also to provide artisans with a more general education. During 1902 Ashbee moved 60 families to Chipping Campden, where he set up workshops. Ashbee’s grandson, Francis Ames-Lewis (Emeritus Professor of Art History at Birkbeck College) has agreed to join the visit. The guided tour will include a visit to Court Barn Museum, where there are examples of work made by the Guild, and the remaining workshop, still run by the Hart family of silversmiths. Hart’s has seen little change since the early 20th century. This unspoiled market town prospered from the 14th to the 19th century through the proceeds of the wool trade. One of the results of the venture was that the Ashbee household attracted a steady stream of influential craftsmen, artists and intellectuals curious to scrutinize the experiment and to exchange ideas. A very engaging and readable account of this extraordinary achievement is Fiona McCarthy’s “The Simple Life” (republished in paperback and on Kindle in August 2014).

Cost - £44.50 per person  (Non-refundable unless the vacancy can be filled, or the trip is cancelled.)

Art Fund Members – A refund of £4.00 per person on the day with valid membership card.

Included: Coffee, talk and admission to Court Barn Museum, a visit to Hart Silversmiths.

Timings: approx. 8.30am to 6.30pm – details to be advised

Following our sold-out tour last year, another chance to visit The Garrick Club. 

This visit is now fully booked

The London coffee houses of the 17th and 18th centuries provided a meeting place to exchange news and gossip and, in today’s jargon, to network. The membership of the Gentlemen’s clubs in the 19th century was frequently drawn from particular interest groups. The Garrick Club was amongst the first whose aim was to support the arts.

Still a “gentlemen only” private club, The Garrick was founded in 1831 moving to its present premises in 1864. It houses the largest and most significant collection of British theatrical works of art - there are over 1000 paintings, drawings and sculptures, a selection of theatrical memorabilia, and thousands of prints and photographs.

The morning begins with coffee/tea and biscuits, and then you are taken on a private tour of all the main rooms of the Club led by Frances Hughes, a NADFAS lecturer in Arts and Theatre history. 

Cost - £20.00 per person

Dress: Smart casual (no jeans, and men must wear a jacket).

Access: There are small lifts to all floors of the Club. However, please be aware that there are two short flights of steps to the ground floor from the street and that for some of the tour visitors will be standing.

This full day tour starts with a visit to Sandham Memorial Chapel near Newbury, where we will be introduced to Spencer’s background as well as his paintings.  The chapel was commissioned in the 1920’s by Louis and Mary Behrend as a tribute to the forgotten dead of the Great War (and specifically to the memory of Mary Behrend’s brother Henry who fought in the ‘forgotten front’ - the Salonika campaign, where Stanley Spencer also served).  Spencer’s paintings draw heavily from his own personal experiences of war, both as an orderly at the Beaufort Hospital in Bristol and his own active service. 

In the afternoon we visit Stanley Spencer’s beloved village of Cookham, where he was born and where he returned to later in his life. This delightful village remains unspoilt even today, as do the houses in High Street connected with Spencer and his family.  The Wesleyan Chapel where he attended church services is now the Stanley Spencer Gallery  which we will visit. 

Our coach leaves from The Avenue just up from St. Michael’s Church at 8.45am and returns at about 5.30pm. The cost for the day is £38 per person for National Trust members. If you are not a member of the National Trust an additional £8 for Sandham Memorial Chapel will need to be paid on the day. Art Fund members will receive a refund of £4 for the Sir Stanley Spencer Gallery. Please bring your membership cards with you on the day.

The Booking Form can be downloaded here.

THIS TOUR IS NOW FULLY BOOKED. WE HOPE TO ORGANISE ANOTHER VISIT NEXT YEAR AS THIS HAS PROVED SO POPULAR.  

Our walking tour lasts two and a half hours and explores the fascinating history and rich heritage of the Jewish Community in East London.  At lunchtime there will be time to explore Spitalfields Market on your own, after which a visit is made to Dennis Severs’ House.

The tour starts at 10.15am from Aldgate underground station (District and Circle lines). We will visit the magnificent Bevis Marks Synagogue which dates back more than 300 years, see a Jewish Soup Kitchen, the first Yiddish theatre in England, hear heartwarming and heartbreaking stories about the traders of Petticoat Lane Market and much more.  The walk finishes by Spitalfields Market with its multitude of restaurants, cafes and shops where you can make your own arrangements for lunch.

After lunch we visit Dennis Severs' House at 18 Folgate Street, an original Huguenot house offering a unique and intimate insight into the lives of a family of silk-weavers from 1724 to the dawn of the 20th Century.  The sights, smells and sounds of the house transport you back to that time. The visit lasts approximately 45 minutes and is conducted in silence.

The cost for the day is £24.00 per person which includes the entrance fees to Bevis Marks Synagogue and Dennis Severs’ House.

Photograph copyright Roelof Bakker

For more photos of this day, visit our Gallery

This visit is now fully booked. We are planning another visit next year to the Garrick Club as this one has been very popular.

The London coffee houses of the 17th and 18th centuries provided a meeting place to exchange news and gossip and, in today’s jargon, to network. The membership of the Gentlemen’s clubs in the 19th century was frequently drawn from particular interest groups. The Garrick Club, founded in 1831, was amongst the first whose aim was to support the arts. Its avowed purpose was to "tend to the regeneration of the Drama". Rule 1 of the Garrick Club Rules and Regulations called for the "formation of a theatrical Library, with works on costume". It moved to its building in Garrick Street in 1864. The Club holds a remarkable collection of works of art. There are over 1000 paintings, drawings and sculptures, a selection of theatrical memorabilia, and thousands of prints and photographs. The guided tour will be led by Mrs. Frances Hughes, a NADFAS lecturer in Art and Theatre history. It will take in all the main rooms of the Club, with highlights from the collection. Please note Access: There are small lifts to all floors of the Club. However, please be aware that there are two short flights of steps to the ground floor from the street and that for some of the tour visitors will be standing.

UNFORTUNATELY THIS VISIT HAS HAD TO BE POSTPONED..

Thursday 24 September 2015, 9 am to 6 pm (booking opens 9 July) CHIPPING CAMPDEN AND THE GUILD OF HANDICRAFT In 1888 the architect C R Ashbee set up the Guild and School of Handicraft in the slums of Whitechapel. The purpose was not only to nurture craft skills and market fine objects, but also to provide artisans with a more general education. During 1902 Ashbee moved 60 families to Chipping Campden, where he set up workshops. Ashbee’s grandson, Francis Ames-Lewis (Emeritus Professor of Art History at Birkbeck College) has agreed to join the visit. The guided tour will include a visit to Court Barn Museum, where there are examples of work made by the Guild, and the remaining workshop, still run by the Hart family of silversmiths. Hart’s has seen little change since the early 20th century. There will be an architectural tour of this unspoiled market town, which prospered from the 14th to the 19th century through the proceeds of the wool trade. One of the results of the venture was that the Ashbee household attracted a steady stream of influential craftsmen, artists and intellectuals curious to scrutinize the experiment and to exchange ideas. A very engaging and readable account of this extraordinary achievement is Fiona McCarthy’s “The Simple Life” (republished in paperback and on Kindle in August 2014).

Chiswick Decorative and Fine Arts Society 2 JULY visit to Farley Farm House & Charleston, Sussex 7.45 AM TO 6.30 PM. Meet at the bottom of the Avenue opposite Bedford Corner. Cost: £54.50 per person – to include a pub lunch FARLEY FARM HOUSE This first ‘field trip’ by ChDFAS has been arranged in response to the enthusiasm generated by the ’Taster Lecture” given by Anthony Penrose, whose family home is Farley Farm House. Roland Penrose, a collector and promoter of modern art, and his wife, the renowned photographer Lee Miller, built up a collection of paintings by their artist friends involved in the Surrealist Movement. Picasso and his family, as well as Man Ray, Max Ernst, Paul Eluard and Joan Miro stayed at the Farm House. Works by these and other artists can be seen in the Farley Farm Gallery, and in the Sculpture Garden. The photography of Lee Miller is also displayed. CHARLESTON Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant lived at Charleston from 1916. They decorated their home with paintings inspired by Italian fresco painting and by the Post-Impressionists. There are objects from the Omega Workshops and paintings by contemporary artists. The house was a focus for the Bloomsbury Group for half a century. The walled garden, designed by Roger Fry, is known for its luxuriant planting and its many sculptures. In mid-summer ChDFAS will see it at its best. Chiswick Decorative and Fine Arts Society Booking forms and cheques may be submitted at the Lecture on 11 June. Alternatively please post the form and cheque, or deliver by hand to: Ruth Levy, Flat 2 Kara Lodge, 14 Newton Grove, London W4 1LB. (Please look for Kara Lodge 2 to the left of the front door). If you would like a written receipt please enclose a S.A.E. The group tour is for a maximum 45 visitors. BOOKING FORM FOR VISIT TO FARLEY FARM HOUSE AND CHARLESTON 2 July 2015 Name(s): ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….……… Cheque to Chiswick DFAS: £………….…..………………………………………………………………… E-mail: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Landline:……………………………………….…….. Mobile:……………............... NOW OPEN TO NON-MEMBERS

The visit to Apsley House and Wellington Arch and the Lecture at POSK in September 2015, “Art & the Napoleonic Wars”, were chosen by ChDFAS to commemorate the bicentary of the Battle of Waterloo, and to complement the National Portrait Gallery’s “Wellington, Triumphs, Politics and Passions” (from March 30 to June 7). APSLEY HOUSE was originally built in red brick by Robert Adam, and some Adam interiors survive. The Duke of Wellington bought it from his older brother as a London base to pursue his new political career. After Wellington became Prime Minister it was extended, clad in Bath stone, and given a portico. The many sumptuous rooms, including the newly refurbished Waterloo Gallery, are embellished with paintings ‘acquired’ after the Battle of Vitoria. There are collections of silver, porcelain and gifts from European countries. Some of Wellington’s medals are displayed. WELLINGTON ARCH, by Decimus Burton, was planned by George IV, with Marble Arch, to celebrate Britain’s victories in the Napoleonic wars. The plans for the original grandiose structure were modified after the King had overspent on Buckingham Palace. The Arch was transferred to English Heritage in 1999. It houses an exhibition detailing the early history of the Arch and its later uses, including some years as a Police Station.