Today I went to the V&A for the second class in the Home Sweet Home course. Once again we had a brilliant lecturer - Dr Richard Williams - who spoke with authority on the Tudor and Jacobean periods. It was such a delight to listen to someone speak for 2 hours, in full command of his subject. This is what I expected to get at university, and sadly we do not get this. So, as part of my self-directed learning degree, I have taken this course at the V&A - it only costs £208 for 10 2 hour lectures with the best lecturers in the land (whereas a university module with the same contact time costs c£1000).
Richard Williams considered the transition from Manor House to Power House. Evolving styles moved from the castle, where all windows faced inwards, possibly onto a quadrangle, in a protective style, to a forward facing style where the windows faced forwards and were more symmetrical. He discussed how the courtyard/ quadrangle style had incorporated an interior corridor, that evolved from Tudor times when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries and gave them to his friends and allies, and these sites became family homes, often rebuilt on the foundations of the monasteries, utilising the cloisters as corridors between rooms.
A truly wonderful set of lectures. It really inspired me to do a series of short breaks to different parts of the UK, to go to look at some of the properties discussed. I heartily recommend the V&A as a venue for adult education - high quality, covering all sorts of subjects in the art/design/social history sphere, and not over-priced!!
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