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Using money raised by National Lottery players, The National Lottery Heritage Fund supports projects that connect people and communities with the UK’s heritage. Vanbrugh 300 is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players, we have been able to develop a nationwide project that aims to broaden the awareness of Vanbrugh through special displays, free education programmes and lectures, throughout his tercentenary year in 2026.
Thursday 7th May, 6.30pm
Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, OX20 1PS
Please join us for an evening lecture with Lady Henrietta Spencer-Churchill and an expert panel of Prof. Christine Stevenson and Jeremy Musson to discuss the life and work of Sir John Vanbrugh, the principal architect of Blenheim Palace. The talk will discuss his sometimes-tempestuous client relationship with Sarah Churchill, first Duchess of Marlborough and reflect on discoveries made during the current, on-going restoration.
Prof. Christine Stevenson is the author of Medicine and Magnificence: British Hospital and Asylum Architecture, 1660-1815 and The City and the King: Architecture and Politics in Restoration London. Vanbrugh is a great passion for her, and he has a star role in her next book, Building in Bits: The Production and Consumption of English Baroque Architecture.
Jeremy Musson is an architectural historian, writer, consultant, and lecturer. He is an affiliate lecturer department of architecture, University of Cambridge, where he teaches on the Building History Master’s and also adjunct lecturer for New York University in London, teaching on the Master’s on Historical and Sustainable Architecture. He is author of many books including The Country Houses of Sir John Vanbrugh: from the archives of Country Life in 2008.
Tickets are FREE but must be reserved on a first come, first served basis. The link to sign up will be available shortly.
This nationwide series of VANBRUGH300 lectures, held across the great houses designed by Sir John Vanbrugh, has been generously supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund in partnership with The Georgian Group.