Betty Joel, born Mary Stewart Lockhart, ran a furniture making and design business. At its peak, in the 1920s and 30s, Betty Joel Ltd employed 50 craftsmen and had showrooms in Knightsbridge. With no formal training, she created, through a flair for branding and marketing, the leading furnishing company of the day in London. The […]

The Italian architect, Andrea Palladio, was born in Padua in 1508. His work was based on the symmetry, perspective and values of the formal classical temple architecture of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. Palladianism became popular during the mid 17th century but its flowering was cut short by the onset of the Civil War and […]

A lecture which explores how refugees and travellers from across Europe and Asia brought new skills and talents which both affected and changed the development of art in Britain. Why were foreigner painters preferred by the aristocracy in London to native-born English painters, why did foreigners come in the first place, what was their motivation, […]