Explore Regency society with us
Food and fashion, cultural life and life downstairs, interiors and townscape – we’re running a whole weekend about society during the Regency period, especially as it affected Brighton.
It’s the most ambitious project the Society has mounted in decades. (We’re working with the Royal Pavilion and Museums Foundation and the University of Brighton.)
2012 is the bi-centenary of the first full year of Prince George's regency and the centenary of the Regency Society's founding figure, Anthony Dale. We hope to use these anniversaries to remind the people of Brighton and Hove how important the Regency period still is for us.
We want to reach a wider audience too – it is in the interest of everyone who cares about Brighton and Hove that the city is recognised throughout the country as a place with unique historical significance.
Star speakers
The weekend starts on Friday evening in the Music Room of the Royal Pavilion with an introduction by our president, Sir Simon Jenkins, and a keynote address by Dan Cruickshank about the year 1812, followed by a glass of wine in the Banqueting Room.
Above: Dan Cruickshank (left) and Simon Jenkins (right)
On Saturday, we move across the road to the University of Brighton for a symposium where national experts – including period architectural and cultural historian, author and television presenter Steven Parissien – will talk about three aspects of Regency life: life at the seaside; life for people who were not rich or aristocratic but serviced the Regency in some way; and cultural life at the time.
There will be walks, talks and tours to choose from later on Saturday afternoon and in the evening we’ll be back in the Pavilion, with a concert of music from the period and an opportunity to meet informally over a glass of wine and explore – we’ll have the ground floor of the Pavilion to ourselves.
On Sunday, we move to the Old Ship Hotel, where the prince Regent celebrated his birthday in 1819 when there was building work at the Royal Pavilon. Food historian Ivan Day (recently seen in Lucy Worsley's television series Elegance and Decadence, The Age of the Regency) will tell us about Regency food, while Lucy Adlington will share her Regency costume collection and talk about health and hysteria in the age of Austen. We round the weekend off with a finale and sit-down lunch.
Tickets
Tickets go on sale at the beginning of April to Regency Society members only. Three weeks later, they’ll be available to the general public throughout the UK and beyond.
Inevitably, prices have to reflect the costs of mounting a big event like this but they are good value and vary according to the type of ticket. There will be specially reduced prices for Regency Society and Royal Pavilion Foundation members.
Initially, only tickets for the whole weekend or for whole days will go on sale. Later in the year, we will put any places left for individual sessions on sale.
• The Regency Weekend runs from Friday 12 October to Sunday 14 October. Save the dates!
<< Back to News
<< Back to Lectures and events
