Speakers include Mary Schoeser, Hilary Grainger (London College of Fashion), Abraham Thomas (Sir John Soane's Museum), Alan Powers (NYU London), Gerald Adler (Kent), and many more from interdisciplinary architectural, design, and art history perspectives. The day also marks the 140th anniversary of the Watts & Co. design firm and the 150th anniversary of the birth of the architect John Ninian Comper.

The afternoon seminars include opportunities to see rare and unique designs by British architects including Pugin, Scott, Murray and Comper alongside material from the Watts archive which has never been on public display before.

Programme

10.00-10.30
Arrival & Registration

10.30-10.45
Introductory Remarks (Jo Banham & Ayla Lepine)

Session I - Victorian Foundations
Chair: Peter Howell

10.45-11.05
Michael Hall
How Watts and Co. Began

11.05-11.25
Gavin Stamp
Middle Scott and Watts

11.25-11.45
Discussion

11.45-12.15
Refreshments

Session II - Going Modern
Chair: Hilary Grainger

12.15-12.35
Anthony Symondson
Sir Ninian Comper

12.35-12.55
Alan Powers
Quietly Radiating Beauty - Stephen Dykes Bower and decoration in the time of Modernism

12.55-1.15
Gerald Adler
Keith Murray: Material Fabric and Symbolic Pattern

1.15-1.30 - Discussion

1.30-2.30
Lunch

Session III - Sacred Beauty and Secular Luxury: Highlighting Design
2.30-4.30

NB: This session consists of three study groups running consecutively. All attendees will rotate through these three groups. Coffee and tea will be served at the book signing in group C.

A. Sir Ninian Comper in the RIBA Collection
(Conveners: Fiona Orsini, Anthony Symondson and Ayla Lepine)

B. Watts & Co. in Context
(Conveners: Mary Schoeser and Brenda King)

C. The British Galleries & G. F. Bodley
(Gallery Tours: Katie Faulkner; Book Signing for George Frederick Bodley and the Later Gothic Revival in Britain and America with author Michael Hall)

Session IV – Watts & Co. and British Design Now
Chair: Ayla Lepine

4.30-4.45
Mary Schoeser
Contemporary Watts & Co.

4.45-5.15
Panel Discussion
Speakers: Mary Schoeser, David Gazeley, Fiona Flint, Abraham Thomas

5.15-5.30
Q&A and Concluding Remarks