Adrian Tinniswood: “Noble Ambitions, a lecture about country house culture in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s”

Einladung zu einem Vortrag in englischer Sprache
Wednesday, 23rd November 2022 at 6.30 p.m.

Veranstaltungsort: Der kleine Saal (Raum E 11) der Volkshochschule Essen

From the Rolling Stones rocking Longleat to Christine Keeler rocking Cliveden Professor Adrian Tinniswood will be taking us on a lively tour of English stately homes at a time when „Swinging London“ clashed with the traditional values of the English countryside.

The decay of those halls of power is closely connected with the rise and fall of the British Empire; after the Second World War country houses were in crisis. There was a growing sense that they had no place in twentieth-century Britain, and so hundreds of stately homes were demolished. Perhaps even more surprising was the fact that so many of these great houses survived, as dukes and duchesses opened their properties to rock concerts, safari parks and day trippers.

Adrian will prove that the the country house is not only an iconic symbol; it also stands for the fundamental changes of British society in the 1950s and 1960s, when „the sun set on the British Empire“.

Professor Tinniswood’s book „Noble Ambitions: The Fall and Rise of the Post-War Country House“ was widely acclaimed and received excellent reviews in the British Press.

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Professor Adrian Tinniswood OBE FSA is the author of eighteen books on social and architectural history, including „Behind the Throne: A Domestic History of the Royal Household“; He has worked with a number of heritage organisations including the National Trust, and is currently Professorial Research Fellow in History at the University of Buckingham.