Architectural historian William Aslet leads a lecture on the 300-year-old St Martin-in-the-Fields church, part of the venue's Autumn Lecture Series.
William Aslet is at St Martin-in-the-Fields on Monday 26 October, for a talk that asks you to look up and around at the very building you're sitting in. Aslet is an architectural historian, and the subject is the church itself — a glorious 300-year-old building right in the heart of Trafalgar Square.
The talk centres on James Gibbs, one of the most important architects in eighteenth-century England. Gibbs worked across the Italian Baroque and English Palladianism, and his buildings are scattered across some of the country's most famous spots: the Radcliffe Camera in Oxford, the Senate House in Cambridge, and the churches of St Mary-le-Strand and St Martin-in-the-Fields. Aslet's lecture draws on that work, so it's a good chance to see the building from the inside out.
The evening is part of the venue's Autumn Lecture Series, curated by Peter Florence and produced by Jolley Gosnold and Maddie Naisbitt. The series is run by church volunteers and led by the Vicar, the Revd Dr Sam Wells, and it's designed to bridge theological and secular discussion on social justice, global responsibility, spirituality and humane intelligence, bringing together people of faith, reason and passion. In 2026, the series is partnering with the European Festivals Forest to plant trees to capture carbon.
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Aslet will be chaired by Richard Carter. The lecture runs for an hour and a half, and there's also an online livestream if you can't make it in person. Doors open at 6.30pm, and the talk starts at 7pm. Tickets are suggested at £10, though free tickets are also available.
