By looking first at Madras, and then Calcutta – there is an opportunity to look at the very best of the buildings constructed in the heyday of the East India Company. This lecture touches on the early 17th century origins of the East India Company and considers the tentative architectural endeavours of the amateur architects and engineers working at the Company’s behest. Study is made of Company’s magnificent late 18th and early 19th century classical buildings, as well as of the stunning late flowering of the Indo Saracenic in Madras and the remarkable Edwardian Baroque of the Victoria Memorial in Calcutta.

Anthony Peers

A freelance historic buildings’ consultant, educated as an Architectural Historian at Manchester University and trained in building conservation at the Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies, York. He worked with the English Heritage Listing Division on the review of military buildings. In the mid 1990s Anthony was employed by the DTI in Bombay, India, setting up and running an innovative project to repair George Gilbert Scott’s university buildings and training local architects and craftsmen in conservation techniques and philosophy.

VENUE: EXETER PHOENIX

This is an external hire – please contact The Arts Society Exeter  for all booking queries.