THE FAME GAME - THE GEORGIAN CELEBRITY REVOLUTION

Join our Blue Badge guides for a fascinating day telling the story of the first celebrities in the society neighbourhoods of Mayfair and St James where the beautiful houses have been home to celebrities through the ages. We meet in Georgian celebrity London at 10.30am to buy morning coffee.

Eighteenth century London played host to the first celebrity revolution as a new showy class sprang up from the profits of the British Empire, new financial services like banking and insurance and (really nothing is new) from a rise in property values. The century also saw the rise of popular newspapers alongside publications like The Tatler bringing the gossip from the High Society and the coffee houses - the tittle tattle.

Reynolds and Gainsborough grew rich by selling cheap prints of their portraits of rich and beautiful women like Kitty Fisher, so famous that she became immortalised in a nursery rhyme. Actor manager David Garrick took over the Theatre Royal Drury Lane and revived the fortunes of theatre creating many new stars and Josiah Wedgwood pioneered celebrity endorsement when he began using royal personalities to promote his brand. We’ll break to buy lunch at Parliament Square or in St James’s depending on your afternoon programme.

Until 17 April 2017 the afternoon starts with a pleasure cruise from Westminster to Greenwich where we visit the Seduction & Celebrity exhibition at the National Maritime Museum. Emma Hamilton was one of the most famous celebrities of the 18th century - her rags to riches and back to rags story is the ultimate costume drama. There are 200 objects including great paintings by George Romney, Sir Joshua Reynolds and Sir Thomas Lawrence.

The alternative afternoon visit is Spencer House, London’s most splendid aristocratic palace built by an ancestor of Diana, Princess of Wales. Aristocratic mansions such as this played a vital role amongst fashionable London society and Spencer House was known to everyone in fashionable eighteenth century society.

You’ll tour the house in intimate small groups with Blue Badge guides and there will be time locally to buy refreshments before heading for home at 4.15pm.

Adults & Seniors: £29

With Seduction & Celebrity:

Available daily to 17 April ‘17

With Spencer House: Available

Sundays and Mondays all year

“She was the irresistible beauty

from the brothels who captivated Europe. This vivid show is a glorious reminder of her rise and fall.... No one in her time could resist Emma Hamilton, and nor will you.”

The Guardian

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5 miles

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