HOW LONDON BECAME THE GREATEST CITY ON EARTH (7/12)

Founded in 1994, THE COURSE offers art history lectures, opera and literature courses, guided museum visits and London walks.

More than any other country on the planet, Britain has pooled its constitutional, financial and cultural forces within its capital. In this series of 6 lectures and 6 accompanying walks we will show HOW LONDON BECAME THE GREATEST CITY ON EARTH. Lecturer, Harry Mount, will explore how, over 2,000 years, London has dealt with six of those forces: the monarchy; the law; religion; finance; entertainment; and education. The story of the Reformation, of constitutional monarchy, of Shakespearean theatre, of the public school, of the common law, the story of Britain…. They can all be told through London’s unique collection of buildings.

FINANCIAL LONDON

This lecture (7 December) and walk (11 January 2017) will show the development of financial London from the Romans to the present day. C19th Leadenhall Market, sits on the site of the Roman forum, heartland of Roman commerce. You can still see its foundation stones in the basement of a hairdresser in the market. We will look at The Mansion House, the Lord Mayor’s splendid, ornate home, built in the C18th century, which shows the power and wealth of City governance. The Royal Exchange, a C19th classical building that sits on the site of Queen Elizabeth I’s exchange and The Bank of England – still the pulse of the British financial world. The elegant original building by Sir John Soane survives in part. You will also look at the C18th private banks around the Bank of England, with their signs dangling over their front doors; the guild halls, palatial headquarters of the City guilds and The Goldsmiths’ Hall where gold and silver quality are still checked, and where fraudulent goldsmiths are investigated.