The monthly meetings of the Crouch End & District U3A are held at the Union Church and Community Centre, Weston Park, N8 9TA. Doors open at 10.00 a.m for tea and coffee. Talks begin at 10.45 a.m.

Coming up …

Thursday 12 September 2019

Jan Marsh : The Pre-Raphaelite Sisters
 

 
As models, mistresses or muses, the women of the Pre-Raphaelite movement have been portrayed as passive figures. In fact, as models, artists and partners in art production, women were active throughout. The forthcoming Pre-Raphaelite Sisters exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery presents the achievements of a dozen familiar and new names to create an account of Pre-Raphaelitism for our times.
 
Dr Jan Marsh from the National Portrait Gallery is the curator of the exhibition which runs from 17 October 2019 to 26 January 2020. She is the author of books on Lizzie Siddal, Jane and May Morris, Christina Rossetti and Marie Spartali.
 

Thursday 10 October 2019

Hugh Hayes : A Park for Finsbury
 

 
A talk outlining the complex history and reasons for the creation of Finsbury Park over nearly thirty years up to its opening in 1869 followed by some highlights from its history, including the public meetings that were held in the park, the park during the second World War, the Finsbury Park Theatre, and the £6 million pound restoration of the park in 2002-7, looking at changing attitudes to parks, followed by questions. It will be illustrated from Hugh’s large collection of ephemera relating to the park.
 
Hugh Hayes was chair of the Friends of Finsbury Park for five years between 1999 and 2005. He wrote a history of the park entitled A Park for Finsbury at the Millennium, now being revised and reprinted. He has often led walks in the park detailing its history and also ran the community garden in the park for eight years. He lived in Stroud Green for thirty-one years, but now lives in Cornwall.

Thursday 14 November 2019

Professor Ian Christie : Rescuing a pioneer: Britain’s forgotten creator of cinema
 
Not many people, even among film enthusiasts, realise that what we know as cinema really started in London in 1896. Robert Paul demonstrated his new projector on the same day at the Lumieres reached London, and within weeks both their and his shows were competing at major music halls in Leicester Square. But unlike the Lumieres, or indeed Edison, Paul wanted to expand the range of what animated photography could do. Over the next five years, he pioneered multi-scene fiction films, literary adaptation, documentary and many other kinds of film. With his wife, he opened Britain’s first studio, in Muswell Hill, in 1898, and built up a substantial international business – not only in film, but also in scientific instruments. So why is Paul not better known? Ian will be offering some suggestions, as well as showing a selection of Paul’s surviving films.

 
Ian Christie is a film and media historian, currently professor at Birkbeck College and also lecturing for Gresham College. He broadcasts regularly and turns up on DVDs of films by Powell and Pressburger, Terry Gilliam and assorted Russians. Before Birkbeck, he worked at the British Film Institute, where he ran distribution, regional programming and video publishing. Exhibitions he has worked on include Spellbound: Art and Film (1996), Unexpected Eisenstein (2016), Revolution: Russian Art 1917-32 (RA, 2017), Animatograph! (re-opening at London Metropolitan Archives, Sept 2019).

Thursday 12 December 2019

Oonagh Gay : The pioneer women MPs
 

 
After a long struggle, women over 30 gained the vote in 1918, but little thought had been given to the prospect of women MPs. The first few women who managed to be elected were resourceful and brave. Nancy Astor is well known, but have you heard of Margaret Wintringham or the Duchess of Atholl? In 1929 only 14 women were elected out of a House of over 600 men, and it took until 1957 for Hornsey to get its first woman MP, Muriel Gammans. This talk will bring to life some of these early pioneers who had to navigate a Commons not designed for them.
 
Oonagh Gay retired from the House of Commons Library after 30 years in 2015, having researched for MPs on constitutional subjects. She retrained as a tour guide and now leads history walks around London, focusing on women and radical themes. She runs the CEDU3A Shorter Walks Group

Thursday 9 January 2020

Andrew Ellis : Art UK: Democratising Access to the Nation’s Art

Thursday 13 February 2020

James M. Taylor : Brilliant British Humour in the Forgotten Art of the Picture Postcard, 1840-1950s

  2019 monthly meetings
 
  2018 monthly meetings
 
  2017 monthly meetings