PROGRAMME of SHORT COURSES in JUNE and JULY 2021 Contents

PROGRAMME OF SHORT COURSES IN JUNE AND JULY 2021

Contents

STARTING IN JUNE

The Russians: Identity and culture (Four sessions) Mondays 7 June – 28 June, 10.30 – 12.30 Zoom

An Introduction to Virgil’s Aeneid in translation (Four sessions) Thursdays 10 June – 1 July, 10.30 – 12.30 Zoom

Tree identification outdoor walks (Four sessions) Fridays 11 June - 2 July, 11.30 – 1pm Outdoors

The Artists of Great Bardfield – East Anglia’s ‘St Ives’ (Two sessions) Wednesdays 23 June and 30 June, 10.30am – 12.30 Victoria Hall, HLSI.

Medicinal Plants. Tour of RCP garden (One session) Wednesday 23 June, 10.30am – 12.30 Royal College of Physicians, Regent’s Park

Architecture: Design for wellbeing and sustainability (One session) Thursday 24 June, 10.30 – 12.30 Zoom

STARTING IN JULY

London walks: Celebrating 200 years of Regent’s Canal (Two days) A: Monday 5 July, 10.30am – 4.30 Outdoors B: Monday 12 July, 10.30am – 4.30 Outdoors

Inside Opera: Rigoletto (Four sessions) Tuesdays 6 July - 27 July, 10.30 – 12.30 Zoom

Scientific Enlightenment – from Newton to Maxwell (Four sessions) Wednesdays 7 - 28 July, 10.30 – 12.30 Zoom

London Social Housing: Architecture and Evolution (Four sessions) Fridays 9 July – 30 July, 10.30 – 12.30 Zoom

HOW TO ENROL

STARTING IN JUNE The Russians: Identity and culture (Four sessions) Mondays 7 June – 28 June, 10.30 – 12.30 Zoom Fees: Members: £60; Non-members: £80

This short course is intended for anyone interested in Russian culture with or without prior knowledge of Russian language. The programme is designed around the four themes that shape Russian identity:

Distance: We will talk and read about the great journeys that have been made across this mighty country and how these vast distances have shaped Russian literature.

Power: How changing regimes have influenced the lives of ordinary Russians, from the Soviet era to the present day.

Fate: The importance of ‘fate’ that runs through much Russian writing and film.

Gender: We will explore Russia’s attitude to current issues including LGBT. Is there a masculinity crisis? Is Russia a Motherland or a Fatherland?

Each session will have a reading recommendation of lesser known authors, as well as the classics, a selection of films to watch and an element of Russian language that illustrates the themes. The students will learn to recognise letters of the Russian alphabet and read some basic words within the context of the lesson (e.g. names of geographical places or personal pronouns).

All the course materials (extracts from literary works and links to videos) will be provided.

Tutor: Elena Malysheva graduated in Linguistics from the University of Pushkin, Russia, and later moved to London, where she obtained an MSc in Education from Birkbeck, University of London. She has over 15 years of experience as a professional translator in the fields of creative media, art and literature and worked as a consultant for the BBC Radio 4 series on Vasily Grossman “Destiny of a Novel”. She is currently teaching Russian language to native and non-native speakers, as well as history, culture and literature. An Introduction to Virgil’s Aeneid in translation (Four sessions) Thursdays 10 June – 1 July, 10.30 – 12.30 Zoom Fees: Members: £60; Non-members: £80

The Aeneid tells how Aeneas, Prince of Troy, escapes from the burning city and sails westward to found ‘a new Troy’ for his fellow refugees. It follows the pattern of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, but was written some 700 years later, in a different language and for a very different audience. Sometimes seen as the ‘Number Three Epic’, it stands proudly as a masterpiece in its own right, full of poetry, dramatic tension and psychological insight. In other words, ‘a great read’!

No translation can do full justice to this extraordinary work, but we shall be using one that is both scholarly and accessible, Robert Fagles’ Penguin edition published in 2006. This is available in bookshops and on Amazon; also online, but this version does not provide page numbers, which can be confusing. You will need to have a copy with you: we shall be doing a lot of reading aloud (strictly optional!) and we need to be all on the same page together.

Notes will be provided on background to the narrative and the historical world in, and for, which Virgil wrote. We shall end by looking at the influence The Aeneid has had on literature, art and music, and considering what relevance this great work has to the world we live in today.

You could read the excellent Introduction by Bernard Knox as preparation for the course, but this is entirely optional. You can simply come and enter with us the world of Aeneas in all its variety and excitement.

There will be breaks for coffee and tea each day. There is a lunch break of an hour and a quarter.

Tutor: Isabel Raphael has a Cambridge MA in Classics and English, and has been teaching Latin, Greek and Ancient History for some 40 years. For the last 19 years she has run a popular class called Latin for Pleasure at the HLSI, and more recently Latin and Greek adult classes in Hammersmith also. She is an experienced lecturer on a variety of Classics-based topics. Tree identification outdoor walks (Four sessions) Fridays 11 June - 2 July, 11.30 – 1pm Outdoors Fees: Members: £45; Non-members: £60

This four-week course takes place outdoors in various nearby parks, namely Waterlow Park, Kenwood Estate, Hampstead Heath and Golders Hill Park.

Who is the course for? This is a course in tree identification for beginners and for those with some knowledge. It is for people who want to improve their ability to observe, describe and identify trees. There will be some uneven terrain, but most walking is on paths and grass.

What will you learn? We will be looking at broad-leaved trees and conifers, at deciduous and evergreen trees. We will be concentrating on leaves, fruit and buds and bark. Some aspects of tree taxonomy will be explained, including the concepts of genus, species, cultivar and hybrid.

How is the course taught? Each session will take place in one of the parks. We will meet on site. The exact location will be announced prior to the start of the course. Teaching will be interactive with high student participation. Students will be encouraged to share their observations, make comments, ask questions and engage in discussions.

Students will be asked to consolidate what they have learned between the weekly sessions. The parks we will visit have outstanding collections of trees and you will learn to identify a great number of species accurately. In order to do this, the students will develop skills, such as practical precise observation, comparison and the use of a methodology.

What to bring Please bring a hand lens of magnification x10 and a notebook and pencil. If you have a tree identification book, please bring it to the sessions. If you are thinking of acquiring one, Collins Tree Guide by Owen Johnson is recommended.

Tutor Bettina Metcalfe is a dendrologist with a keen interest in observing and identifying trees in ornamental settings in historic parks and gardens. She is an active member of the International Dendrology Society and has extensive experience of leading tree study walks.

The Artists of Great Bardfield – East Anglia’s ‘St Ives’ (Two sessions) Wednesdays 23 June and 30 June, 10.30am – 12.30 Victoria Hall, HLSI Fees: Members: £30; Non-members: £40

In 1931 Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious cycled through Essex looking for a cheap place to work – they discovered Brick House, Great Bardfield. A few months later they moved in with their wives, Tirzah Garwood and Charlotte Bawden, both artists in their own right. Over the years the town became known as the ‘St Ives of East Anglia’ - an artist’s town where Ravilious painted some of his best work, artist friends gathered, moved in, painted, moved on – Grayson Perry grew up there; John Aldridge lived and painted there most of his life. Their wide circle of friends included Paul and John Nash, Enid Marx, Barnett Freedman and Peggy Angus. We will look at some of the wonderful art they produced, and explore the influences and associations of the Great Bardfield group. What were their concerns? Interests? Was there a Great Bardfield style?

The Fry Art Gallery in Saffron Walden now has a permanent exhibition of Great Bardfield Artists.

Tutor Jenny Vuglar has previously taught at the HLSI. She holds an MA in History from the University of Auckland, New Zealand and an MA in Art History from the Open University. She specialises in 20th Century British Art. She teaches Art History at Morley College and is an associate lecturer at the Open University. Medicinal Plants. Tour of RCP garden (One session) Wednesday 23 June, 10.30am – 12.30 Royal College of Physicians, Regent’s Park Fees: Members: £15; Non-members: £20

This tour is planned for those interested in plants and their past, present and possible future uses in medicine. Although herbal medicine will be discussed, the tour is not designed for those primarily seeking information regarding herbal medicine. No knowledge of botany will be assumed.

The Royal College of Physicians is housed in a stunning Grade 1 listed building designed in the 1960s by Denys Lasdun of National Theatre fame. It is situated at the bottom of Regents Park near the Euston Road. The Medicinal Plants Garden was started about 15 years ago and has an outstanding collection of over 1000 different plant species of medicinal interest with a further 200 that are named after famous doctors.

Topics that will be covered include: • Plants that were milestones in the discovery of medicines (e.g. Foxglove Digitalis purpurea) • Plants as sources for modern medicines (e.g. Artemesinin Artemisia annua) • Plants illustrating the Doctrine of Signatures (e.g. Pulmonaria officinalis) • Plants for treating cancer (e.g. Yew Taxus baccata) • Herbal medicines (e.g. St John’s Wort, Hypericum perforatum) • Poisonous plants (e.g. Deadly nightshade Atropa belladonna) Access The RCP (11 St Andrews Place, NW1 4LE) is in Regents Park near Great Portland Street Underground station and easily accessible by public transport from Highgate. There is wheelchair access to the College and the garden. Recommended reading: A Garden of Medicinal Plants. Oakeley H, Knowles J, de Swiet M, Dayan A. Little Brown, 2015 available from RCP The Gardener’s Companion to Medicinal Plants. Simmonds M, Howes M, Irving J. Frances Lincoln Ltd, 2016

Tutor Michael de Swiet is a retired professor of medicine and has been a garden fellow at the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) for seven years, sharing responsibility for the management of academic aspects of its medicinal plants garden. He also serves on the Advisory Committee of the Chelsea Physic Garden. Architecture: Design for wellbeing and sustainability (One session) Thursday 24 June, 10.30 – 12.30 Zoom Fees: Members: £15; Non-members: £20 DaeWha Kang will talk about human beings’ fundamental need to connect to nature. Drawing on examples from his practice, DaeWha will show links between design, sustainability and well-being. Bringing together scientific research, aesthetics, and architectural technology, this talk will introduce you to simple principles of design that you can apply to your home or place of work. Younha Rhee will explain how, as designers, we can design buildings to contribute to meeting the Paris Agreement targets and fight climate change. The Paris Climate Agreement represented a turning point in tackling climate change, with a commitment to limit increases in global temperatures below 2ºC and decarbonise the global economy by mid-century. In response to this unprecedented challenge, the UK government took the historic step of making a legal commitment to delivery 100 per cent greenhouse gas emissions reduction by 2050 – Net Zero. This target is an

extremely difficult one to achieve in a construction industry, particularly in the domestic sector, where the use of fossil fuel is prevalent. Tutor DaeWha Kang is a designer, artist, and architect who has spent the last twenty years studying and building architecture around the world. He founded DaeWha Kang Design in 2014 as a multidisciplinary design practice focused on measurably improving wellbeing through architecture and design. The studio's international projects have won multiple awards., You can see his work at: www.daewhakang.com Tutor Younha Rhee is an Associate Director at Atelier Ten. In her twelve years at Atelier Ten, Younha has focused on developing strategic sustainability frameworks and managing multiple sustainable building certification schemes. She holds an MArch degree from Yale University and a BS in Architecture from University of Virginia. http://atelierten.com/

STARTING IN JULY London walks: Celebrating 200 years of Regent’s Canal (Two days) A: Monday 5 July, 10.30am – 4.30 Outdoors B: Monday 12 July, 10.30am – 4.30 Outdoors

Fees: For one day: Members: £35; Non-members: £45. For both days: Members: £60; non- members: £80

Regent's Canal opened in 1820 and celebrated its 200th anniversary last year. It was built to provide a link between the Grand Junction Canal's Paddington terminus and the River Thames. This summer short course will follow the route of the canal, approximately 8.5 miles, from Little Venice to Limehouse in two walks. Along the way we will learn about the history of the canal from its industrial hey-day in the nineteenth century through its decline in the 1960s, to its subsequent re-invention as a place for people to live, work and play. We will see buildings, old and new, and hear stories of the canal past, present and future.

Each walk is around 4.5 miles with a lunch break approximately half way.

Your guide: Jen Pedler from Footprints of London has lived locally for many years and has guided many of our walks.

Walk A: 8 June Regent's Canal: Little Venice to King's Cross We start the walk in Little Venice where Regent's Canal joins the Grand Junction (now Grand Union) canal. We will walk through the stuccoed houses of Maida Vale and encounter two of the canal's three tunnels. We'll pass residential moorings and railway bridges before reaching Regent's Park and the zoo. We will continue to Camden Town and the tourist mecca of Camden Lock. Leaving the tourists behind, we will make our way along the towpath to King's Cross, an area that has been completely transformed over the last few years. The walk will finish at Battlebridge Basin, just before the canal enters the Islington Tunnel. Meet outside Warwick Avenue Underground Station.

Walk B: 15 June Regent's Canal: Angel to Limehouse We start the second walk at the other end of the Islington Tunnel and head to City Road Basin. We'll follow the canal through Islington and Hackney, past many repurposed industrial buildings and some modern development, before reaching Victoria Park. We'll cross the Hertford Union Canal which links Regent's Canal to the Lee Navigation and continue through Mile End Park to Limehouse where the canal joins the Thames. Meet outside Angel Underground Station. Inside Opera: Rigoletto (Four sessions) Tuesdays 6 July - 27 July, 10.30 – 12.30 Zoom Fees: Members: £60; Non-members: £80

Rigoletto is an acknowledged masterpiece that still delights audiences today: Operabase reveals that, internationally, Rigoletto was the 5th most performed opera in 2019-20 and that the works of its composer, Giuseppe Verdi, were the most played.

With Rigoletto, Verdi made an important technical advance toward a coherent presentation of the drama in music. The action proceeds almost continuously, so the audience rarely perceives artificial breaks for conventional arias especially in the famous third act. There is less distinction between the recitatives, which tend toward lyrical arioso, and the arias which are dovetailed into their surroundings.

Throughout, the work is noted for Verdi’s complete grasp of his musical materials. The orchestra conveys moods and unspoken emotion, perhaps most notably in the storm music of the final act. Even minor characters are delineated musically through distinctive rhythmic, melodic, or harmonic patterns.

In this four-part short course, the musical score will be explored in depth to reveal the secrets of its power to express the drama.

Part 1: Rigoletto in the context of the musical language and structures of 19th century Italian opera Part 2: The arias Part 3: The duets Part 4: The ensembles

Tutor Ross Alley was, for many years, a music lecturer for Birkbeck College (University of London). He has also given numerous guest lectures for the Royal Opera House, English National Opera, Wigmore Hall, the Wagner Society, the Gustav Mahler Society, London Jewish Cultural Centre, and NADFAS. Scientific Enlightenment – from Newton to Maxwell (Four sessions) Wednesdays 7 - 28 July, 10.30 – 12.30 Zoom Fees: Members: £60; Non-members: £80

The works that brought about the two great unifications in physics – Newton’s Principia and Maxwell’s Dynamical Theory - were both published in London. The course will examine how, in the eighteenth century, advances in scientific thought and material science underpinned the Industrial Revolution and helped to change the social and material fabric of the city. We will also consider how new techniques of navigation, based on Newton’s ideas of space and time, led to an age of exploration and the expansion of the Port of London.

We will then consider how, in the first half of the nineteenth century, new philosophical and mathematical ideas led to a reconsideration of the need for broader scientific education, the establishment of The Royal Institution, as well as provincial centres devoted to more practical learning. We will briefly consider the impact of the Great Exhibition of 1851. Finally we will look at the development of the electric telegraph and how a much more imaginative consideration of light, magnetism and electricity paved the way for James Clerk Maxwell’s revolutionary papers.

Tutor Jim Lloyd Davies has been Chair of the Science Group at HLSI for the past three years. He has academic qualifications from Cambridge and the Ecole Militaire. He served thirty years with the RAF before becoming a tour guide specialising in London, Paris and military museums and battlefields. London Social Housing: Architecture and Evolution (Four sessions) Fridays 9 July – 30 July, 10.30 – 12.30 Zoom Fees: Members: £60; Non-members £80

Using the fabric of the city and the experience of four centrally located neighbourhoods, this four-part course charts the evolution of social housing. Based on four virtual walks, it charts physical change, shifting politics and the evolution of domestic architecture and estate types between 1840 and the present day. As part of the course, students will be provided with a downloadable route guide to each walk, so that they may connect with the architecture and the neighbourhoods afterwards.

Course plan:

9 July. Shoreditch & Bethnal Green Today some of the city’s most sought after districts, Shoreditch and Bethnal Green were historically home to some of London’s worst slums that swelled as the Victorian city pushed further eastwards through rapid industrialisation. Responding to dire living conditions, philanthropists, reformers and the public sector intervened in a housing landscape pushed to its limits via wartime destruction. This talk traces housing as intervention in the neighbourhoods of the old East End exploring waves of 19th century improvement and design exemplars from Peabody’s utilitarian brick dwellings, and the LCC’s arts and crafts tenements to 20th century modernist towers and vernacular turns.

16 July. Bankside & Southwark Free from the regulations and oversight of The City, London south of the Thames developed in a unique and different way. Once market gardens and tenter grounds belonging to the Bishops of Winchester, the neighbourhoods of Bankside and Southwark became carved up

between the frenetic competing and shifting needs of industry, commerce and railways with housing and living space squeezed between them. This talk explores public housing and contrasting examples of model dwellings and estate layout in a disputed and fragmented landscape from cliff face affordable tenements and slab blocks to character cottages and garden squares.

23 July. Clerkenwell & Finsbury Clerkenwell and Finsbury were two of the toughest and hardworking neighbourhoods in London. Densely populated, living conditions in these areas were notorious and in the first half of the 20th century they came to incubate progressive and revolutionary political ideas with the local metropolitan borough embracing healthcare programmes, urban improvement and later new concepts in housing that would provide a template for the rest of the UK. This talk explores the architectural monuments, engineering triumphs and strange, high and low rise landscapes created in the making of new types of homes that embodied bold ideas and radical design.

30 July. Pimlico & Victoria Pimlico and Victoria have long been overshadowed by the pomp and tourist crowds of Parliament and Abbey. Once outlying marshlands, they developed quickly in the 19th century for an affluent Victorian class with big townhouses and grand mansion blocks lining new streets. Yet behind the facades, another class dwelled and struggled for space in the metropolis. In tackling living conditions for the many in these areas both districts witnessed dramatic spatial change, with transformation on a huge scale. This talk explores tabula rasa neighbourhood planning through big 19th century interventions and some of London’s most comprehensive, celebrated and unusual 20th century housing landmarks.

Tutor Mike Althorpe (The London Ambler) is an urban historian, architectural researcher, educator and story teller with a passion for the history, streets and buildings of London. Graduating from Kingston University with a BA in Fine Art, Mike went on to complete a research MA at the University of Westminster focussing on London’s Architecture, history and spatial development. He has spent the past 18 years producing a variety of built environment events, publications, exhibitions and outreach projects. Most recently he co-authored ‘Social Housing’, published by RIBA, and curated the exhibition of the same name in London in 2017 and at New York’s Center for Architecture in 2018.

HOW TO ENROL

Courses are open to both members and non-members. Enrolments open on Tuesday 11th May 2021. Enrolments can be made online: at http://www.hlsi.net/courses, or by phone 0208 340 3343

Location The HLSI is located at 11 South Grove, Highgate, N6 6BS. Nearest tube station: Highgate or Archway. Buses: 271, 210, 143

Fee concessions Places may be available for those on income-related state benefits at £20 for a four-week course and £10 for a two-week course. Pease contact the office for details.

Cancellations The Education Committee reserves the right to cancel a course due to lack of support. If a course is cancelled, fees for sessions that have not taken place will be reimbursed. In exceptional circumstances refunds may be given at the discretion of the Educational Committee.

Accessibility There is step-free access to classes held in the Victoria Hall. There is no insurance cover for people taking part in activities off the premises.

Join the HLSI We welcome new members. Our membership gives you access to all our facilities including our up-to-date lending library, our special book collections and historic archive, and to our comfortable members’ room, with tea and coffee and all the leading periodicals. Members have free entry to our weekly lectures, enjoy reduced fees for our courses and are invited to a variety of social events throughout the year.

For information about membership subscriptions and how to join, visit our website or contact the office by phone or email ([email protected])