2 Audley Square
Mayfair, London W1K
UK
Established in 1994, The Course offers exciting lectures in Art History, Literature and Music.
In this series of 10, we ask when does a house become a “home”? When does a food plot become a “garden”? How do staircases and corridors reflect a new way of life? From the defensive architecture of the moat and keep to the 21st century urban fortresses of glass and concrete, from the monastic herbal garden to Chelsea show gardens for the urban terrace, we look not only at buildings, interiors and nature but, above all, at what they tell us about how people use their spaces to manage their lives.
A Consumer Culture
New houses require new furnishings, and the Grand Tour was the perfect opportunity to acquire great collections – statuary, paintings and decorative arts reflecting a society desperate for cultural status. Side by side with this, stars of the Industrial Revolution like Josiah Wedgwood and Thomas Chippendale were developing a dazzling range of affordable new products for the rising and aspirational middle classes.