The Royal Oak Foundation

Zoom Rental | Gardens of Glass
2025-08-28 12:00 - 2025-12-30 12:00 (America/New_York) | Zoom Recording, Virtual, New York, NY, 10036, United States
Trelissick Garden, Cornwall
With the global expansion of 17th-century European trade networks, plant collecting became a matter of both economic and intellectual interest in Britain. Exotic fruits and flowers were prized as prestigious displays of wealth and refinement, fueling an obsession with horticulture among the elite. The fascination began with pineapples and soon extended to citrus trees; a trend particularly championed by King William III. By the late 18th century, a glass house or ‘greenhouse’ was an architectural mark of a gentleman’s garden, even if it was only to grow delicate fruits such as apricots or peaches. John Goodall, Architectural Editor at Country Life, will trace the rise, fall, and revival of Britain’s historic glasshouses, exploring their cultural significance and the renewed interest in their restoration today.
John Goodall – Architectural Editor – Country Life
John Goodall has been architectural editor at Country Life since 2007 and has contributed to CL since 1994. He is the author of several books, including English House Style: From the Archives of Country Life and The English Castle (2011). English Castle received numerous accolades: the 2011 Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion and the 2013 Historians of British Art Book Prize (pre-1800). The work also received the G. T. Clark Prize for 2007–2012. He read history at Durham University and took an MA and Ph.D. in architectural history from the Courtauld Institute of Art. In 2003 he joined English Heritage as a senior properties historian. He had written several guidebooks for both English Heritage and the National Trust. He acted in 2007 as series consultant for the BBC 1 series How We Built Britain. Other projects include contributions to the photographic book The English Cathedral by Peter Marlow. He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 2001. Goodall is a patron of the Castle Studies Trust, a UK registered charity founded in 2012.
Tickets: $15 members*; $25 non-members
*Membership discount applied automatically when logged into your Royal-Oak.org account

Zoom Rental | Gainsborough House & Exhibition: Masterpieces from Kenwood
2025-09-26 - 2025-12-31
Reopened in 2022 after a transformational refurbishment, Gainsborough House in Suffolk is the National Centre for the artist Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788). The house combines the artist’s childhood home—a Grade I, 18th-century merchant brick town house—with new exhibition galleries and facilities. The house holds the world’s largest single concentration of Gainsborough’s work and presents the artist’s life and legacy through dynamic exhibitions. Emma Boyd, the Keeper of Art and Place, will take us on a virtual tour, showing remaining parts of the old house including the hall and oak doorway dating back to the 16th century. She will describe the history of the house (which stayed in the artist’s family until 1792) and illustrate the current exhibition, Masterpieces from Kenwood: The Splendour of British and French Painting (May 9–October 19, 2025). The show features 18th-century masterpieces by both British and French artists, including Sir Joshua Reynolds, George Romney, Angelica Kauffmann, and François Boucher. These masterpieces, on loan from Kenwood House and collected by Edward Cecil Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh (1847–1927), are displayed alongside the work by Gainsborough. Ms. Boyd will show these outstanding paintings and reveal how Gainsborough’s art fits within the broader context of the artistic work created by his British and French contemporaries.
Tickets: $25 members*; $35 non-members
*Membership discount applied automatically when logged into your Royal-Oak.org account

Zoom Rental | Feeding the City: London’s Iconic Food and Drink Factories
2025-09-30 - 2025-12-31
London was the largest city in the world during the 19th century, with an appetite to match. As the city’s population exploded, food and drink needed to be produced on an unprecedented industrial scale. In response, sprawling factories sprang up across the capital, churning out everything from biscuits to gin. Some of these London historic food sites remain active today, while others have been repurposed, leaving behind only traces of their industrial legacy. Through this fascinating virtual tour, Rob Smith will take us back to London’s flavorful past as he explores the food factories that helped feed the population of the metropolis. We will explore the story of the Lyle’s Golden Syrup factory in Silvertown—founded in the 1880s and operating today—producing its famous syrup in the world’s oldest branded packaging. We will learn about McVities in Harlesden, home to beloved British biscuits like the Digestive and Jaffa Cakes, and we will explore what became of Gordon’s Gin distillery, once a powerhouse in Clerkenwell. We will also virtually visit the former Sarsons’ vinegar works in Bermondsey, whose towering vats now house creative studios. Rob will reveal what life was like for the factory workers, the production innovations that shaped their industries, and the legacy left by these factories that shaped London’s culinary and urban history.
Tickets: $30 members*; $40 non-members
*Membership discount applied automatically when logged into your Royal-Oak.org account

Zoom Rental | British Abroad: The Grand Tour
2025-10-08 - 2025-12-31
For young men of the 18th-century English social elite, extended travel for pleasure on the Continent came to be seen as an essential component of a well-rounded education. The Grand Tour also served as an important social marker for noblemen and aristocratic gentlemen who had completed their English schooling but were not yet old enough to assume control of their estates. The conventional Grand Tour was generally limited to France and Italy, although some ventured further afield to Switzerland, Germany, or the Low Countries. In his lecture, historian Jeremy Black MBE will explore the experiences of those who undertook the Grand Tour. Using private diaries and personal letters, he will present a fresh perspective on how British aristocrats experienced their travels—from accommodations, transport, food, and souvenirs (such as artworks and sculptures brought back to fill country houses) to entertainment expenses, tipping, and gambling or drinking money. He will also address the hazards faced by travelers, including the dangers of war, illness (sometimes fatal), carriage accidents, and crime. Dr. Black will focus on the realities of the journey, moving beyond the idealized version often portrayed in literature and history. Finally, he will discuss how the Grand Tour shaped both its participants and broader British culture.
Jeremy Black MBE, is a renowned English historian and former Professor of History at the University of Exeter. He graduated from Cambridge and did postgraduate work at Oxford. A prolific author and lecturer, he has written over 100 books, with a particular focus on 18th-century British, European, and American political, diplomatic, and military history. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of America and the West at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, Philadelphia.
Tickets: $15 members*; $25 non-members
*Membership discount applied automatically when logged into your Royal-Oak.org account
