Central London Branch Programme
For all enquires and for events where pre-booking is required, please contact:
Jill Kilsby MA, MBA, 8 Purley Oaks Road, Sanderstead, Surrey, CR2 ONP
Email: jillkilsby2012@live.co.uk | Tel: 07957 627783
Branch President: Vacancy
Honorary Vice-Presidents: Professor David Stevenson, Mrs Chrissie Ganjou
Vice-Chairs: Jill Kilsby, Hedley Sutton
Treasurer: Jill Kilsby
Venue: All talks start at 2pm and take place at St. Anne’s Church 55 Dean Street, London W1S 6AF, Allen Room, first floor (lift available). The venue is accessible via various bus routes, and tube stations and Charing Cross Station is not far away.
Associate membership fees Individual £12.50 per year, Joint Family £20. Talks free to national HA members and students, visitors £3.
Central London Branch Programme 2025-6
Saturday 25th October 2025
Fighting Bolsheviks Fooling Nazis and Making History: The Extraordinary Life of Robert Bruce Lockhart
Professor James Crossland, Associate Dean of Research, Faculty of Society & Culture Co-Director, Centre for Modern and Contemporary History (CMCH)
To be followed by the branch AGM
Saturday 13th December 2025
Byzantium: The Forgotten Empire
Professor Jonathan Harris, Professor in Byzantium History, Director of Postgraduate Study (Research Degrees), Royal Holloway, University of London
To be followed by the Branch Christmas Social (Social free to Central London Branch Members: £6 non-Members). Pre-booking for the Christmas Social required for everyone for catering purposes, please contact Jill Kilsby.
Saturday 24 January 2026, 2pm
Monks, Madness and Murder
Meet Ann Archbold at Aldgate Station for a walk to Bishopsgate, hearing about the area's long history and some of the "dirty deeds" committed in the area, but also more joyful events.
If you are not sure you will be able to manage all the walk, please feel free to leave at a suitable point.
Pre-booking and payment required. Please contact Jill Kilsby jillkilsby2012@live.co.uk with any queries. The cost is £5 for HA and Central London Branch members and £9 for non-members.
Saturday 28 February 2026
The East India Company’s commissions for Westminster Abbey
Dr Jennifer Howes, Art Historian
The talk is based on Dr Jennifer Howes’ new book The Art of A Corporation: The East India Company as Patron and Collector
Wednesday 22 April 2026, 4 – 6.30pm **PLEASE NOTE DIFFERENT DAY, TIME AND VENUE**
Guided Tour of the British Library
Hedley Sutton, BL librarian
Venue: The British Library, 96 Euston Road London NW1 2DB
Guided tour of the British Library building followed by a show and tell session of some collection items in the Asian and African Studies Reading Room.
£2 members, £5 visitors. Places are limited; booking is essential. Contact Jill Kilsby at jillkilsby2012@live.co.uk, Telephone 07957 6277
Saturday 9 May 2026
‘Scholarship boys and girls revisited’. Popular narratives about positive grammar school education and how they might be revised.
Prof Peter Mandler, Gonville and Caius Cambridge
Saturday 6 June 2026
Who did Henry VIII think he was?
Prof Steven Gunn, Merton Oxford