UNVERSED …    
Written & Performed by Beckis Cooper, directed by the award-winning Rachel Fowler.

Thursday 28th March
Doors open at 6.30pm, performance starts at 7pm.
Refreshements to be served.
Please note that late arrivals cannot be permitted entry.

Join us for a critically-acclaimed one-woman whirlwind performance of Shakespeare's greatest hits, staged in the atmospheric historic interiors of one of the greatest Shakesperean editors, Samuel Johnson.

Unversed … An eager young actor in the city of London has got her hands on a discarded copy of Shakespeare’s first folio. Newly printed and the hottest publication in town, all the plays exist together for the very first time. There's only one problem: the parts are all too out of reach for women to play on the public stage. Come along and be part of the rehearsal as Antonia gives herself permission to speak the verse and explore the profession of being a woman - both onstage and off.

Unversed was commissioned and created for the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio for Keats House in Hampstead where it premiered to great reviews. Following this performance at Dr Johnson's House, it will go on tour to John Clare Cottage, Peterborough, The Painted Room in Oxford, The Willow Globe in Wales and will go to Stratford in 2025.

Please book your tickets here

Praise for ‘Unversed’ …

“Marvellous concept with incredible characters - a treat for any Shakespeare fan."

“Just been to Unversed: what a brilliant, passionate, intimate and thoughtful exploration of Shakespeare’s well versed ladies. From Desdemona to Lady Macbeth, I thought Beckis was utterly captivating."

" Brilliant! I loved every minute of it! What a joy it was tonight - to hear Shakespeare acted so truthfully and with such beautiful expression.”

"Superb acting and wonderfully interactive with the audience." "An outstanding performance from an outstanding actor."

The Fleet Street Quarter BID. The talks are free to attend and will be held on the last Thursday of each month throughout 2024. The subject of the talk will range from Johnson and dictionaries and the 18th century, to urban planning and eco matters, such as urban pollution throughout history and what each age has done to combat it. Guest speakers will also feature as part of this exciting new programme.

The lectures will run from 12:45 - 13:45 and lunch will be provided to enjoy during the talk - when booking please highlight any dietary requirements (at least 48 hours in advance of the event), and please also arrive at 12:45 sharp or earlier. You will also have the opportunity to explore the House after the talk.

Please note that tickets are limited and popular, and must be booked in advance. Sign up to our newsletter to receive advance notice and information on how to book. We look forward to welcoming you on the day!

Meanwhile, our book club, Dr Johnson's House Reading Circle, will continue to meet regularly throughout 2024-25, and you'd be very welcome to join us. Do check back on the page for details.

DR JOHNSON WALKS 2023

We are also running our City Guide led Dr Johnson's Walks programme so why not take a stroll back in time and visit Johnson's old haunts with us?

Follow in Johnson's footsteps and explore the courts and alleys off Fleet Street with an experienced City Guide.

Walks take place on the 1st Saturday and 3rd Friday of each month (except Jan) at 2pm.

Groups may also book walks at alternative times, contact us via the website contact form at the bottom of each page to arrange.

Explore the 18th - century literary London of the writer, critic and lexicographer, Dr. Samuel Johnson. Walk down Fleet St, stroll through its alleys and byways and find out how Dr Johnson and his contemporaries made their careers in the burgeoning world of printing and publishing.

£12.00 Tickets are available via Eventbrite. Booking is not essential, however. Please bring cash for tickets not purchased in advance. We meet outside the house five minutes before the walk commences

Dates for the walks this year are as follows:

Saturday 3 FebruaryFriday 16 February
Saturday 2 March
Friday 15 March
Saturday 6 April
Friday 19 April
Saturday 4 May
Friday 17 May
Saturday 1 June
Friday 21 June
Saturday 6 July
Friday 19 July
Saturday 3 August
Friday 16 August
Saturday 7 September
Friday 20 September
Saturday 5 October
Friday 18 October
Saturday 2 November
Friday 15 November
Saturday 7 December
Friday 20 December

This is a joint venture between Dr Johnson's House and the City Guides www.cityoflondontouristguides.com

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Past Events at Dr Johnson's House

Tea Party to celebrate Dr Samuel Johnson's Birthday

Join us to mark Johnson's 224th birthday here at Dr Johnson's House!
Johnson declared himself 'a hardened and shameless tea drinker ... whose kettle has scarcely time to cool, who with tea amuses the evening, with tea solaces the midnight, and, with tea, welcomes the morning.'

We are delighted to collaborate with The Georgian Dining Academy to invite you to a birthday celebration for the great wordsmith Dr Samuel Johnson at his beautiful home in Gough Square.

This is an opportunity to have a cup of tea (or several!) with cakes, savouries, and fancies where Dr Johnson entertained his guests. You will have the opportunity to visit the whole house and discover all its delights and secrets, whilst imbibing in the invigorating brew Johnson so highly valued. You can also visit the current exhibition ‘Gratifications of the Palate’: Cuisine in the Age of Samuel Johnson .

You will be entertained by short talks about previous guests and in habitants and learn more about Johnson’s peculiar tea drinking habits!

Please note that pots of tea, cakes and savouries will be served as a buffet. You are encouraged (but not obliged) to wear Georgian attire for the afternoon.

Charles Burney, Frances Burney and Reciprocal Silencing

Thursday 3rd March 2022  7pm (doors open at 6.30)

Join us to discover the tense relationship between father and daughter, and how each, in turn, silenced the other in an unusual case of reciprocal silencing.The initial silencer was the celebrated music historian and friend of Dr Johnson, Dr Charles Burney (1726-1814), father of the novelist, journal-writer and dramatist Frances Burney (1752-1840). After the extraordinary success of her first novel, Evelina, in 1778, her fame soon rivalled and then eclipsed his. To his credit, he encouraged her to continue writing fiction.

Writing for the theatre, however, was another matter; he dreaded the idea of his daughter’s becoming a public figure and succeeded in silencing her dramatic voice. After Dr Burney’s death, the tables were turned. With his vast archive in her possession, Frances could ensure that his correspondence would not be published. As for Dr Burney’s memoirs, Frances destroyed the manuscript almost in its entirety. But what impelled Dr Burney to silence his daughter? What were her reasons for suppressing the material in her care? Discovery why with Prof. Sabor.

Professor Sabor is Canada Research Chair and Professor of English at McGill University, where he is also Director of the Burney Centre. Recent publications include Samuel Richardson in Context, co-edited with Betty Schellenberg (CUP, 2017) and The Cambridge Companion to Emma (CUP, 2015). He is general editor of The Court Journals and Letters of Frances Burney (OUP, 6 vols, 2011-19) and Additional Journals and Letters of Frances Burney (OUP, 2 vols, 2015-18), as well as co-general editor of The Cambridge Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Samuel Richardson (24 vols, in progress). He is general editor of The Letters of Dr. Charles Burney (OUP, 6 vols in progress). His website Reading with Austen is a digital recreation of the library used by Jane Austen at Godmersham Park: www.readingwithausten.com.

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The Art of the Eighteenth-Century Obituary

Wednesday 8 April 2021   7pm (doors open at 6.30)

"We ne’er shall look upon his like again! Never on earth did one mortal body encompass such true greatness and such true goodness. The limits of our OBITUARY are too scanty to speak forth half his praise." So the publisher John Nichols lamented the death of his friend, Samuel Johnson, in The Gentleman’s Magazine for December 1784.

The obituary is one of the eighteenth century’s greatest inventions – a product of the age’s fascination with all forms of biography, and a rapidly expanding market for printed news. No one did more to popularise it than Nichols, who was mocked as a ‘death-hunter’ for his pains. Join Dr Rebecca Bullard to discover what eighteenth-century obituaries can tell us about the world in which Samuel Johnson lived and worked, and how they compare with printed memorials in our own time.

Whigs in Wigs: Fashions and Politics in the 18th Century

Saturday 30 May 2019 2pm

The 18th Century saw much political upheaval, as well as some of the most exaggerated and infamous fashion trends in Western History. We are well aware today of the links between politics and fashion; whether it be wearing slogan t-shirts, ties in party colours or buying garments made in Britain. The 1700s was no different – from fashionistas like Georgina The Duchess of Devonshire, to the outlawing of highland dress in 1746, this talk will examine how fashion was politicised during the 18th Century.

Katie Godman is a Costume Librarian for Islington Education Library Service. She studied MA Fashion Cultures: History and Culture at London College of Fashion and received the Yarwood Award from the Costume Society to fund her research into women’s fashion the early 1800s. She writes book reviews for The Journal of the Association of Dress Historians. Her own books are represented by the John Jarrold Agency and she is currently working on a proposal for a book on the history of Gothic fashion, as well as drafting a novel set during the Napoleonic Wars.

Free with standard admission charge

Viral Satire in Dr Johnson’s London

Thursday 11 June 2019 7pm (doors open at 6.30pm)

Satire was everywhere in the age of Dr Johnson. Although the eighteenth century was by most historical standards a peaceful and prosperous one, its writers and artists were always at one another’s throats. Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, John Gay’s Beggar’s Opera, and Alexander Pope’s Dunciad took the literary world by storm. Everyone read them despite their darkness and oddity. Even at the end of the century a spirit of satire still animated the novels of Frances Burney, Jane Austen and Maria Edgeworth. It was an age of irony, and only the Romantic-period cults of sincerity and sentiment could bring it to an end.

The story of satire in the eighteenth century has many parallels in the divided culture of twenty-first century Britain. Then as now satire happened virally, in bursts of angry energy. Cultural bubbles and silo mentality helped it to flare up, as they do today. Theirs, like ours, was an age of information technology and social awakening: satire still mocks such advances with gloomy glee. In this lecture Dr Paddy Bullard, editor of The Oxford Handbook of Eighteenth-Century Satire, asks what we can learn from the triumphs and failures of an older generation of satirists for our own fractious age.

DR JOHNSON WALKS

Follow in Johnson's footsteps and explore the courts and alleys off Fleet Street with an experienced City Guide.

Walks take place on the 1st Saturday and 3rd Friday of each month (except Jan) at 2pm.

Groups may also book walks at alternative times. For any enquiries please contact us on drjohnsonwalks@gmail.com

Explore the 18th - century literary London of the writer, critic and lexicographer, Dr. Samuel Johnson. Walk down Fleet St, stroll through its alleys and byways and find out how Dr Johnson and his contemporaries made their careers in the burgeoning world of printing and publishing.

£10.00 Tickets are available via Eventbrite. Booking is not essential, however. Please bring cash for tickets not purchased in advance. We meet outside the house five minutes before the walk commences

5th March Book here

18th March Book here

2nd April Book here

15th April Book here

7th May Book here

20th May Book here

4th June Book here

17th June Book here

This is a joint venture between Dr Johnson's House and the City Guides.