Lectures

Next event

Our next event will be our Members Evening on 13 December 2023, 7pm at the Augustine United Church, George IV Bridge. 

This features short talks by OEC members, John Malden, ‘When the Elephant Came to the Fair’ and Derrick Johnstone, ‘Sweet Singers of Israel’, and Karen O’Brien and Iain Duffus of the City Libraries, ‘From Quill to Computer, Edinburgh Manuscript Collection and New Age Discoverability’.

Wine, soft drinks and mince pies!

The 2023-24 lecture programme

  • 18 October 2023 – Reinventing Edinburgh: The Fall and Rise of the Municipality 1830-70 by Richard Rodger
  • 15 November 2023 – Royal Society of Edinburgh in the Nineteenth Century by Bill Jenkins
  • 13 December 2023 – Club Evening – When the Elephant came to the Fair by John Malden; Sweet Singers of Israel by Derrick Johnstone; and Karen O’Brien and Iain Duffus, ‘From Quill to Computer, Edinburgh Manuscript Collection and New Age Discoverability’.
  • 17 January 2024 – Trinity Church – Medieval Edinburgh by Lizzie Swarbrick
  • 14 February 2024 – The University of Edinburgh in the Eighteenth Century by Alasdair Raffe
  • 13 March 2024 – Books and Borrowing: Edinburgh 1750-1830 by Karen Baston

We hold our events in the Augustine United Church, 41 George IV Bridge, Edinburgh EH1 1EL, with live streaming for anyone who cannot be there in person.

All talks start at 7pm.

Non-members may attend or view each event for £8. Please contact info@oldedinburghclub.org.uk

The 2022-23 lecture programme

Last year’s programme featured:

  • October 2022 – Trevor Griffiths – Entertainment for all the Family? Going to the Pictures in Edinburgh
  • November – Lindsay Paterson – Secondary Schools in 20th Century Edinburgh: Social Divisions and Intellectual Excellence
  • December – Members’ Evening – The Secret Edinburgh Tunnel by Maurice McIlwrick, Elevating the Poor in Victorian Edinburgh by Joan Fraser and Pilkington Jackson’s Union Canal memorial frieze by Graeme Cruickshank
  • January 2023 – Rebekah Higgitt – Instruments, Institutions and Individuals: The Local Networks of the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, in the 19th Century
  • February – Diane Watters – Scottish Historic Schools: The Architecture of Burgh Schools, Academies and Educational Institutions before 1880
  • March – Penelope Wilson – Networked Edinburgh 1800-1820 and the Stamp Office Story