// Award-winning author lecture //
Combine an award-winning author Alec Hamilton with a rare opportunity to visit Campion Hall, Oxford, a Jesuit college designed by Edwin Luytens full of history and art, followed by a garden drinks reception.
21 June, 6 – 8.30pm Campion Hall Chapel, Oxford
Within walking distance from the railway station and very close to St Aldate’s Oxford Tube bus stand.
Tickets on Eventbrite.
Delve into the intriguing world of Arts & Crafts churches, with Alec Hamilton, winner of the biennial A+C Book Award. ‘Built in a new spirit – cooperative, non-competitive – by architects who wanted to be hands-on’, Alec will be helping us to understand why they were built as they were, and the approach of their designers and craftsmen towards ‘beauty and truth, and the loveliness of creation.’
The lecture takes place within the private spaces of Campion Hall, where Fr Martin D'Arcy brought together an extraordinary collection of art to promote dialogue. The Chapel (and Hall), designed by the architect Edwin Luytens, is home to mural paintings by Charles Mahoney and lithograph Stations of the Cross by Frank Brangwyn. Attendees are encouraged to come a little early to see these close up before the lecture.
The lecture will be followed by drinks and canapés in the beautiful College garden (weather permitting, otherwise in the Persons Room).
Timings
5.40pm A chance to view some of the works of art in the Chapel and Hall before the lecture begins.
6pm Welcome, introductions and lecture
7pm Drinks reception
8.30pm End
About Alec Hamilton
Alec Hamilton is an award-winning author who has written and performed at the Cheltenham Literature Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe. In November last year, his book on Arts & Crafts Churches won the A+C Book Award and also the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain's Golvin Prize.
He first researched Arts & Crafts churches in 2004, continuing to an MA on the work of the Arts & Crafts church architect Charles Spooner and finally a DPhil at Oxford on ‘The Arts & Crafts in church-building in Britain 1884– 1918’. He has lectured on Arts & Crafts subjects, and on individual churches, especially the Arts & Crafts in Gloucester Cathedral, and the churches of the Wye and Severn Valleys. Until recently he was a Trustee of both the Landmark Trust and Friends of Friendless Churches.
About Campion Hall
Founded by the Jesuits in 1896, Campion Hall is one of six Private Halls at the University of Oxford. The Hall opened originally for the benefit of Jesuit under-graduates, but is now home to a thriving international community of graduate students, Fellows, and staff from diverse backgrounds and faiths. The Hall has an extensive art collection, principally the work of Fr Martin D'Arcy SJ, some of which can be seen in the lobby and stairway of the Hall. Ticket holders may wish to arrive 15 – 20 minutes early in order to view some of the works of art both in the Chapel and Hall before the lecture begins.
