Events
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Saturday 25th September | As part of the London Borough of Richmond-upon-Thames' Heritage Festival, the Grotto will be open on Saturday the 25th September from 10 am to 12:30 pm with last entry at 12 pm. More details and booking at TicketSource. |
| Thursday 23rd September | The Grotto team will be at St Catherine's School from 6pm to 8pm to collect the reminiscences of former pupils who remember the Grotto from their school days. If you are an alumna of St Catherine's, and would like to attend this event, please RVSP to the school. |
| 20th October to 4th November 2021 | Our partners at London Luminaries have organised an Autumn Series of six evening lectures about people and places in West London. Full details can be found at https://londonluminaries.com/. |
| 19th January to 3rd February 2022 | Tickets for the London Luminaries Winter Series of six evening lectures are now available. Full details can be found at https://londonluminaries.com/. |
Newsletters
Newsletter 1: Project status, fund-
Newsletter 2: The status of our conservation project,our last symposium, other local grottos and the ‘Nine Ladies of Crux Easton’.
Newsletter 3: Our recent Heritage Lottery grant, laser-
Newsletter 4: Completion of the conservation and lighting of the South Chamber and an article on “Pope’s mortal blow”.
Newsletter 5: Changes to the conservation plan, recent fund-raising events and open days, our plans for the 300th anniversary of Pope’s arrival in Twickenham, a tragic event in Stanton Harcourt and an abbreviated transcript of a talk by Dr Emrys Jones “an ornament from an inconvenience”. (the full text of Dr Emrys Jones talk “An Ornament from an Inconvenience” can be found here)
Newsletter 6: Restarting the conservation and open days, the “Twickenham Luminaries” lecture series and memories of St Catherines’ old girls.
You can keep informed by subscribing to our email list here.
In the news
This is an article about the restoration project in the Daily Telegraph (15th September 2015) by Victoria Lambert: “Inside Alexander Pope’s hidden grotto”.
Read this article from the Observer (8th May 2016) about our project: “Hope springs eternal: project to save Alexander Pope’s secret grotto”.
Here’s an excellent article in the London Review of Books blog by Mary Wellesley (4th August 2016): “In Pope’s Grotto”
Hyperallegenic, an online magazine based in New York, has a good article about us here: “Restoring Alexander Pope’s Glinting Grotto to Its Former Glory”.
A couple of articles about our project have been published in 2 local magazines, not available on the web: The Friends of Tabley House (Cheshire) Newsletter February 2016, and An Baner Kernewek (The Cornish Banner), August 2016. The latter is a long-
Historical novelist, Lucy Roeber, has written and excellent article on the grotto in her blog: “The Season of Grottos”. Well worth reading.
After a visit to the Grotto in August 2018, Frank Skinner talked at length about his visit and Pope on his Saturday morning radio show on Absolute Radio. Listen to a clip here:
The London Topographical Society has published an article on the grotto in their Newsletter Number 88.