Salon for the City is London's longest running cultural event. Every month we take a look at the City through a different lens with two amazing speakers in the historic location of London's only surviving 18th century Horse Hospital.
Doors 7pm
Transient Town
From medieval guesthouses to today's HMOs, London has always been a city of transient residents. In the first of two salons, we explore how long before hotels became commonplace, travellers, clergy, merchants, migrants and professionals depended on an extraordinary variety of temporary accommodation.
Historian LESTER HILLMAN journeys back several centuries to uncover London’s forgotten network of monastic and episcopal lodgings. From the Hospitallers of Clerkenwell and the Gilbertines near Smithfield to the Bishop of Ely’s London residence, he shows how temporary bases supported fundraising, administration and diplomacy, while placing their occupants at the heart of one of medieval London’s liveliest neighbourhoods
Lodging was more than a place to sleep: it was where business was conducted, alliances forged, information exchanged, and new arrivals found their footing in the world’s most dynamic city.
Historian Dr GILLIAN WILLIAMSON explores the hidden world of eighteenth-century lodgers, revealing the complex relationships that existed between landlords, landladies and the thousands of people who made their homes in rented rooms. She shares a fascinating insight into the role lodging houses played as the facilitators of encounters and interactions, and how they sustained the economy of Georgian London.
Dr GILLIAN WILLIAMSON is a social historian. She has published on the Gentleman’s Magazine, the leading eighteenth-century periodical, and her acclaimed book, Lodgers, Landlords and Landladies in Georgian London, explores the complex world of London’s lodgers and she is a regular speaker on the history of Georgian London. She is currently working on the life of John London, a Black publican and one of the earliest known Black voters.
LESTER HILLMAN is an historian, guide and independent researcher whose work explores the geography and urban life of London. Through original archival research, he brings to life the networks of people, places and temporary lodgings that connect the city and its citizens
BEX COUPER was a BBC journalist before becoming a London historian, Blue Badge and City of London tour guide whose work brings the city’s hidden histories vividly to life through walks, talks and writing.
DR JENNY LANGE is a neuroscientist and science communicator with a passion for uncovering the overlooked stories of women whose discoveries changed the course of medical history.