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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 18th June 2026
Step back into the 1700s and into the most important room in Britain: the country house dining room. In this engaging talk, Dr. Amy Boyington pulls back the velvet curtains on the ‘theatre of the feast’ to reveal how the Georgian elite used architecture, art, and an almost religious devotion to excess to cement their social standing.
Explore the high-stakes political dining of the Kit-Cat Club, where Sir John Vanbrugh’s ‘Castle Style’ architecture provided a literal fortress for Whig power and legendary toasts. From the Gothic drama of Lord Byron’s wine-filled human skulls and the scandalous glitter of silver bought with bribes, to the visceral reality of Parson Woodforde’s ‘maggoty ham’ and drunken pigs, Amy explores the dining room as a pivotal engine room of society. Discover the rigid choreography of Service à la Française, the ‘Frenchified’ culinary rivalries of the Napoleonic wars, and the legendary after-dinner rituals where port was poured and political alliances were forged. Join us as we peel back the gilding to reveal a world of impossible tensions - where the line between supreme refinement and raw, gluttonous reality was as thin as a silver-handled blade.
Tickets are FREE but must be reserved on a first come, first served basis. The link to sign up will be available shortly.
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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.
