What's On - December 2024
We've collected a few recommendations for events, talks, and exhibitions over December, up and down the UK. Whether you're looking for a landmark location to celebrate the festivities or an informative talk on the subterranean history of Southwark Tube Station, you need not look further.
Celebrate the festive season at a site SAVE helped to save…
Ice Skating at Battersea Power Station, London: The saving of Battersea Power Station was over 40 years in the making, and SAVE was at the heart of it – SAVE’s The Colossus of Battersea (1981) proposed the reuse of the site as an athletics venue, and in 2012 we worked with Allies and Morrison to propose new plans to transform the power station into an entertainment venue. Battersea Power Station was reopened in 2022, and until the 5th January 2025 is hosting ice skating on three interconnected rinks between the power station and the Thames.
A Baroque Concert at Stoneleigh Abbey, Warwickshire: Following severe fire damage in 1960, Stoneleigh’s future was thrown into uncertainty. SAVE gave support to the formation of a new charitable trust in 1996, which not only restored the buildings, river, bridges and weirs, but also created a self-supporting working estate of 780 acres. If you’d like to see it for yourself, you could pop down to a baroque concert being held in the Saloon of the house on the 15th December.
Banquets and candlelit tours at Dumfries House, Ayrshire: In 2007, a mere two months before the scheduled auctioning-off of its original Chippendale furniture, SAVE launched a fundraising campaign to ensure that the furnishings of the 1759 house were retained and opened to the public. Following a financial intervention by several bodies including the Prince’s Charitable Trust, the house was secured and opened to the public the following year. And so it remains. Over the festive season you can book a candlelit tour of the house, or even a banquet, with opportunities to dine surrounded by early eighteenth-century Flemish tapestries.
…or attend heritage exhibitions and events
Exhibition in London: RIBA: “Difficult Sites: Architecture Against the Odds” (until Spring 2025, Monday to Saturday: 10am to 5pm (Tuesday: 10am to 8pm), Sunday and bank holidays: Closed).
Pre-recorded talk: Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings: Matthew Slocombe and Jonathan Garlick on “An Introduction to the Old House Project” (until 31st December 2024).
Docklands Warehouse Tours: London Museum (1st – 14th December 2024).
Lecture in Sunderland: Sunderland Antiquarian Society: Philip Curtis on “Sunderland in the early 20th Century” (Bede Tower, Burdon Road, Sunderland, 19th December 2024, 19:30-21:00).
Hackney Almshouse Tours: Museum of the Home, London (every Wednesday and Sunday, 10:30, 12:00, 14:00).
Bath Abbey talk online: World Heritage Cathedrals and Abbeys: Adrian Neilson and Alex Morris on "Bath Abbey, as part of City of Bath WHS" (17th December 2024, 19:00-20:00).
If you'd like to attend a SAVE event, check out our events page for what's coming up over the next couple of months!