Post AGM Tour: The Warburg Institute and Senate House
Post AGM Tour: The Warburg Institute and Senate House
Saturday 5 July 2025
Meet time/place: 2.00pm/Main entrance, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU
Finish time/place: 4.00pm/The Warburg Institute, Woburn Square, London WC1H 0AB
Follows the AGM (11am-1pm) and lunch break.
This exciting tour will explore University of London’s Bloomsbury campus and examine two Charles Holden buildings: Senate House (1932-37) and the Warburg Institute (1957-58). The Senate House tour will be led by Professor Bill Sherman. The latter will be led by Nigel Hetherington, architect from Haworth Tompkins, responsible for the award-winning refurbishment and extension of the Institute building.
Charles Holden’s initial masterplan for the University of London – a mega-structure stretching from the British Museum to UCL – was scaled back to include the monumental tower of Senate House and separate buildings for various colleges and institutes. We will visit the interior looking at the ceremonial halls and circulation spaces.
The Warburg Institute was the final element of Holden’s plans for the Bloomsbury site – completed in 1958. Housing the library of German art historian Aby Warburg (1866-1929) and exiled to London in 1933, the institute specialises in the study of images, art and culture.
Bolton-born Holden (1975-1960) joined the practice of Percy Adams (1865-1930) in 1899, with a third key architect, L G Pearson (1879-1953), arriving in 1903. A member of the Art Workers’ Guild and the Design and Industries Association, Holden and his practice designed buildings and their fittings as well as working as town planners. He received the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 1936.
Professor Bill Sherman is Director of the Warburg Institute and curator of ‘Charles Holden’s Master Plan’. Having held posts at University of York and the Victoria and Albert Museum, Professor Sherman became director of the Warburg Institute in 2017, overseeing the Warburg Renaissance project to refurbish and extend the building.
Nigel Hetherington is a London based architect. He was the project architect during the final phase of the Warburg Renaissance project.
C20 Members: £20.00 Non-members: £25.00
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The Twentieth Century Society is an IHBC (Institute of Historic Building conservation) recognised CPD provider.
Twentieth Century Society is a registered charity, no 1110244
Above: Senate House, Charles Holden, 1932-37
Image credit: John East