London Buildings: Fakes and Fallacies    
With Philip Venning

Thursday the 13th October 2011
Doors at 6 pm, Show commences at 7 pm

Not everything is what it seems or what we believe. Is the familiar historic building largely a replica ?  Do we only see London’s historic buildings as the Victorian restorers thought they ought to look ? What is odd about the fact the world’s most famous zebra crossing is now a listed building ? Philip Venning, Secretary of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, based in Spitalfields, will look as some fact and non –facts.

Philip Venning has been Secretary of The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) for 21 years. The first Secretary was William Morris who founded the Society in 1877. Philip Venning spent the first part of his career as an educational journalist, latterly as Assistant Editor of The Times Educational Supplement. After an ideal spell combining work as a freelance in London with hands-on repairs to an 18th century village house near Bath, he was appointed to the SPAB. During his time the Society has expanded considerably, particularly in the range of practical training it offers, about which he feels passionately. Though the SPAB is very much a fulltime job, he is a member of the Expert Panel of the Heritage Lottery Fund, and also the Westminster Abbey Fabric Commission. He has a special interest in historic churches and is a Vice President of the National Churches Trust. For 9 years he was an elected member of the National Trust Council.


Talks take place at The Last Tuesday Society at 11 Mare Street, London, E8 4RP - please click here to buy tickets