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Virtual Lectures via Zoom Webinar

Spring Series 2026

James Thompson

If Walls Could Talk: Famous Castles, Mansions and Palaces

Presented by James Thompson

Thursdays, March 26 to May 14, 2026

10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon

To be offered as virtual lectures via Zoom Webinar. Recordings of each lecture will be made available to all paid participants for one week following each live lecture.

Cost            $50 per household for this eight-lecture series

Times
9:50 – 10:00 a.m.    Participants can join the webinar
10:00 – 11:00 a.m.   Lecture
11:00 a.m.                Refreshment break
11:10 a.m.                Q & A
12:00 noon              Lecture ends

Registration begins on Tuesday, February 17, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. and tickets will be on sale until Friday, March 20, 2026 at 11:50 p.m. After Friday, March 20, 2026, it will not be possible to register for individual lectures or a partial lecture series.

If Walls Could Talk is an engaging eight-week course that looks at architecture and social history combined. Participants will learn about how the notion of domesticity has evolved over time by looking at examples of great architecture and houses built by well-known historical figures as impressive walls designed to last. Along the way, we will explore different styles of architecture and domiciles built by their patrons for special reasons, as well as a little gossip around each. An extensive reading list will be provided to extend the course for many months.

26 March 2026 – Course Introduction and the Romance of the English Castle

  • The contribution of King Arthur
  • The earliest: Tintagel and Camelot
  • Winchester Castle
  • “The French Connection”: 1066 and all that
  • Warwick Castle
  • King William’s Norman Skyscraper: 1080
  • Castle Rising
  • Norman Postlude: Leeds Castle
  • North Wales’s enchanted castle Conwy
  • Scotland the Brave: Edinburgh, Glamis, Dunvegan and their legacy

2 April 2026 – Early French Chateaux and “The Chateaux Country”

  • Ivry La Bataille
  • Sainte Chapelle for fortress Paris
  • The Louvre: from castle to palace
  • Fontainebleau
  • The vital importance of the Loire River
  • Chateau de Langeais and Chambord
  • Blois et Cheverny
  • Amboise and Azay-Le-Rideau

9 April 2026 – Henry VIII and the English Country House

  • Politics at Leeds Castle
  • If Walls Could Talk: Grace and Favour at Hampton Court Palace
  • Rival bastions of power: Hever Castle
  • St James’s Palace London
  • The majesty and tragedy of Whitehall Palace
  • Nonsuch
  • The tragedy at Fotheringay Castle
  • Stately homes – Woburn Abbey, Downton Abbey, Fonthill Abbey
  • “The Three Vanbrughs”: Castle Howard, Blenheim, Seton Delaval

16 April 2026 – Palaces as Power: Building in the Age of Absolutism

  • The rise of Imperial Madrid
  • The Escorial – and the glory of Philip II
  • The Louvre revisited
  • Vaux Le Vicomte and the twilight of French aristocracy
  • The chateau at Saint-Cloud
  • The Versailles of Louis XIV and V
  • The Versailles of Louis Philippe: “All the Glories of France”
  • The mission of Gérald Van der Kempe and Jackie Kennedy

23 April 2026 – Castles and Palaces in Imperial China and Japan

  • A great fortress for China
  • The massive fort the Yongle Emperor built
  • The political significance of “a summer place”
  • The samurai tradition in Japan
  • Great Japanese castles
  • The work in castles of filmmaker Akira Kurasawa

30 April 2026 – Early American Great Estates

  • Historic Colonial Williamsburg
  • Stratford Hall
  • Mount Vernon
  • Liberty Hall
  • Monticello
  • Arlington

7 May 2026 – American Mansions of the Gilded Age

  • The Breakers
  • Biltmore
  • Oleana
  • Winterthur of historic Delaware
  • Kykuit, the Rockefeller estate; Sleepy Hollow at Tarrytown
  • Hearst Castle and the Golden Age of Hollywood
  • Falling Water – Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece

14 May 2026 – Great Estates of Ontario and Canada, Drawing Conclusions

  • Hatley Castle in BC
  • In Ontario: Dundurn Castle, Bellevue, Batterwood House
  • In Toronto: Rosedale, Summerhill, Dovercourt, Casa Loma, Spadina, Oaklands, Glendon Hall and the F.P. Wood Estate
  • Big Question: If you had a chance to live in any of our great residences, which one would you like to occupy?
  • Reviewing books for ongoing reading

James A.S. Thompson has been an adult education instructor teaching on demand for twenty years. He has taught history, art and architecture, and social history courses at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies, George Brown Seniors Association, Glendon LLIR and the LIFE Institute at Toronto Metropolitan University. His well-received courses include Great Museums of the World, the Super Collectors, the Propaganda Masters, and Tyrants, Dictators and Democrats. He is a former volunteer at the AGO and currently volunteers and promotes the East Asian collection at ROM. He is soon to publish a book based on ten years of research with Dundurn Press. James lives in Toronto.

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