Past Events This Year






		A record of our past events from this year. Click here for information about future events planned for the rest of this year and beyond. Summer Meeting Saturday 12th June 2010 Horace Walpole and Strawberry Hill Despite the warm weather and the distractions of the football World Cup, an impressive number of members visited the Victoria and Albert Museum together to see an exhibition devoted to the former contents of Strawberry Hill, Horace Walpole's "little Gothic castle" in Twickenham. The contents of the house had been dispersed in 1842, but many had been gathered together again for this exhibition, and this was the first major retrospective on Horace Walpole, who was arguably one of the most important and pioneering collectors of the 18th century. Strawberry Hill itself is a fine example of Georgian Gothic Revival architecture. Between 1747 and 1792 Walpole expanded and rebuilt the property, adding towers and battlements, turning a former modest coachman's house into a cabinet of curiosities. The building itself is now being restored and we hope to visit it again next Summer, which will be nearly 30 years after our last visit! After the exhibition, we departed to the Cittie of Yorke public house for a talk by Dr. Clare Rider. Clare is currently archivist at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, but was formerly an archivist for St. Mary's University, which acquired Strawberry Hill in 1929. Clare gave a highly informative and entertaining talk, discussing Walpole, the house itself and also Walpole's 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, which originated the genre of the Gothic novel. This was followed by other Gothic readings by Society members. AGM and Spring Meeting Saturday 24th April 2010 After an excellent supper, we first did the business of the Society's Annual General Meeting, which included receiving the Membership Secretary and Treasurer's reports. After the formalities were over, we settled down for another Gothic themed quiz, in the same format which had been so successful and enjoyable at the Summer Meeting in 2009. Unlike last time, where the talent must have been spread around more evenly, one team must have had all the brains, and ran away with a resounding victory! March Literary Meeting Saturday 13th March 2010 New Year Meeting Film Evening Saturday 9th January 2010 Once again we met at the George in the Strand for our traditional New Year film show. Bad weather made the turnout lower than expected, but a hardy few braved the icy conditions, both outside and inside the venue, where the heating wasn't working! We enjoyed two rarely seen episodes of the 1977 BBC TV series Supernatural. The first was The Night of the Marionettes, an interesting take on the origins of the Frankenstein story. This item was especially interesting to us as the actor Vladek Sheybal won one of our very early Hamilton Deane Awards for his performance in this production, and most of us hadn't been able to see it again until now! The second episode presented was Dorabella, an atmospheric vampire tale.