Sir Charles Saumarez Smith - Hawksmoor and Vanbrugh: the Drama of Architecture

Sir Charles Saumarez Smith, the former CEO of the Royal Academy of Arts, reviews the vexed question of the relationship between Nicholas Hawksmoor, the architect of Christ Church Spitalfields and other churches for the Fifty New Churches Commission in East London, and Sir John Vanbrugh (whose 300th anniversary is this year), with whom he worked so closely on the design of Castle Howard and Blenheim and as colleagues in the Office of Works. The talk will take account of the information contained in the speaker’s book, John Vanbrugh: The Drama of Architecture, published by Lund Humphries on 20 November 2025 to accompany an exhibition held at Sir John Soane’s Museum from March to June 2026.