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EVENTS

Find a live or virtual event in 2023

London's Lost Department Stores

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Event Details

A chance to step back in time, via fabulous period images, to a vanished era of glamour, confidence and style. We'll tour the West End like an Edwardian 'shopping woman' before heading off to the suburbs, via Gamages toy department, the flamingos in Derry & Toms roof garden and D. H. Evans' pioneering ankle reduction service. Who were the personalities behind these temples of consumption? Which invisible women broke through the glass ceiling? And what happened to Victorian shoplifters?

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Dates

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- 2 October 2024, 11am & 2pm, The Arts Society, Royal Leamington Spa 

- 9 October 2024, 10.45am, The Arts Society Samlesbury Lancashire 

- 4 December, 12pm, The Arts Society, Saltaire

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All Arts Societies welcome guests and new members - get in touch via the links. 

Fashion, Fury and Feathers: Women’s Fight for Change

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Event Details

When Tessa Boase told the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds she wanted to write their early story, they refused to let her visit their archives. To a former investigative journalist, this was a challenge she could not resist . . .
           This lecture shines a light on the intriguing story of women’s love affair with plumage ­ – and of the brave eco feminists who fought back on behalf of the birds. Moving from a polite Victorian tea party to an egret hunt in a Florida swamp; from a suffragette ‘monster rally’ to a milliner’s dusty workshop, you’ll be taken back in time to a world where every woman, of every class wore a hat. 

Dates

- 5 October 2024, 1.30pm, The Magnusson Lecture, Wigtown Book Festival

Magnus Magnusson was President of the RSPB from 1985-1990, and this annual lecture was set up to commemorate him. Ironically, bird-lover Magnusson has been remembered in a way that the RSPB's female founders weren't, so this is a valuable opportunity to set things right. I'm delighted to be invited to this brilliant Scottish book festival to tell the story. 

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12 November 2024, 10.30am-3pm, Sanderstead Arts Society, Croydon. STUDY DAY.

A social history of the high street, and the high cost of fashion.

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19 November 2024, 10.30am-3pm, Arts Society Nadder Valley, Wiltshire. STUDY DAY.

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20 November 2024, 10.30am, Arts Society Hungerford

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PAST EVENTS

London's Lost Department Stores

16 November 2022, 7.30-9pm, The Wigmore Library, Gillingham ME8 0PX

The Invented Department Stores of London

29 November 2022, 2-3pm

Kensington: an 'Aladdin's Cave of Shopping'

Monday 12 December, 6.30-7.30pm, Kensington Library 

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