24th Sept – Design Museum Guided Tour – Away Day

Design Museum Guided Tour In order that we fully appreciate and understand this Museum’s unique concept and designs for modern living, we have been lucky to book an exclusive tour by one of its resident experts. The guided tour includes an exhibition looking at the development of modern design, designers and makers who shaped the world we live in. It features almost 1,000 items of 20th and
21st century design, from the angle of the designer, the manufacture and the user.
There will be time for coffee in the café before the one-hour tour which starts at 11.30am.
Please note: The maximum number of places on this tour is 15.

Date: Thursday 24 September Meeting Time/Place:
10am on the concourse in front of the main entrance to Wimbledon Station.
We’ll take the District Line to High Street Kensington. From there it is about a 10/15-minute walk to the Museum. There are 30 steps from the Tube station to street level.
Cost: £28.40
To join us please complete the booking form in the centre of this newsletter and send it with your cheque, made payable to Kingston u3a, to Pamela Townsend. Tel no: 07789 397635.

8th Oct – Watts Gallery, Artists Village, Compton – Away Day

Watts Gallery, also known as Artists’ Village, is near Guildford. It is dedicated to the works of the Victorian painter and sculptor George Frederick Watts and his talented wife Mary Watts, artist, designer and writer.
En route to Watts Gallery we’ll stop in Guildford for coffee (not included in the price) and a brief visit to the Cathedral.
George and Mary Watts founded the Grade II listed building, designed by Christopher Hatton Turner. It opened in 1904 and is the only purpose-built art gallery in the UK dedicated to a single professional artist.

We’ll spend the day at the Artists’ Village, visiting Limnerlease (the couple’s home and studio), the historic Art Gallery with its contemporary Sculpture Gallery, and finally the Chapel on the hill, commissioned by Mary and decorated by her with help from the local villagers.

There is no guided tour but you can access an audio tour on the Gallery’s Smartify App, which can be download before you go or in the Village itself. Please bring your own headphones. The café there is small and the manager is unable to cater for individual orders on the day. A group lunch of homemade vegetable soup with a bread roll will be available for those who prebook lunch on their application form. Otherwise please bring your own lunch.

Date: Thursday, 8 October.
Meeting Time/Place:
The coach will pick you up at:
9.30am Kingston
9.45am Surbiton
Price:
● Coach: £24.90
● Entrance fee: £15 or £8.88 if you have a National Art Pass
● Group Lunch: £7.95

Accessibility:
Limnerlease: The coach will drop us as near to the house as possible and there is a lift to the first floor. It will collect us from here and take those who wish to the Artists’ Village or you may walk down the woodland path to the road when you’re ready to leave.
Artists’ Village: Shop, café and gallery are all on one level. The Sculpture Studio is accessed inside the Gallery down steps or by lift. There is no lift to the Contemporary Gallery from the shop and the visitors’ centre.
Chapel: The coach will park up by the Chapel which sits high on a mound, accessible only up a long set of steps or a winding uphill path. Those who feel they do not want to visit the Chapel will be asked to wait patiently in the coach for members to return.
The coach will leave at 3.30pm for our return to Kingston.
To join us, please complete the booking form in the centre of this newsletter and send it with your cheque, made payable to Kingston u3a GAS, to Jacqui Hine.
jacqui@hine.org.uk, 07817 264959 (for cancellations on the day only, please)

26th Nov – National Portrait Gallery: Guided Tour – Queer Stories – Away Day

Opened in 1856 the National Portrait Gallery was the first public gallery in the world dedicated to portraits. Its collection provides a unique way to understand the past through people and the context they lived in. It tells the story of the nation through the people who shaped it.

Queer Stories explores the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other sex/gender-identifying (LGBTQ+) sitters within the collection, showcasing queer lives and liberation through the years. From the legendary Chevalier D’Eon to Virginia Woolf, Gwen John to Elton , the tour explores how queerness has shaped the collection. Discover a landscape of often hidden histories brought to light. This session
may reference adult themes and content and has the potential to use strong language.

Our guided tour is scheduled for 11.45am and lasts for one hour. After our tour members may wish to explore other parts of the Gallery’s extensive collection independently. Portraits are arranged chronologically, starting with the Tudor Collection on floor 3 and ending with the newest additions on floor 0.

There’s a very pleasant café in the Gallery for refreshments (not included in the price), although we cannot make an advance booking. There are also several other cafés in the area .

Date: Thursday, 26 November Meeting Time/Place: 10.15am at Waterloo Station opposite platforms 1-4 Travel: We’ll take the 76 bus to Trafalgar Square and walk the short distance to the Gallery entrance.
Cost: £22.40
Accessibility: There’s a small flight of steps at the main entrance. All floors can be accessed by escalators and lifts.
To join us on this intriguing tour, please complete the booking form in the centre of this newsletter and send it with your cheque, made payable to Kingston u3a GAS, to Hazel Burr.
hazelbee46@yahoo.co.uk
07950 687553

4th Dec – Christmas Lunch – Open to all Members

Join us for our Christmas lunch, open to all members of Kingston u3a and a chance to get together again at Glenmore House and renew friendships in a friendly environment with delicious cuisine.

This year children from the local St Andrew’s and St Mark’s Primary School choir will welcome us with cheerful festive songs before we sit down to lunch.

Menu

● Starter: Cured salmon and beetroot terrine with French bread

● Glenmore sorbet

● Main Course: Roast turkey with all the trimmings

● Dessert: Cream profiteroles with chocolate sauce

Please note: The chef will cater for you if you have a food intolerance. Make sure you explain this on the reverse of the booking form.

Date/Time: Thursday, 4 December Arrive from 12 noon. Please be seated by 12.30pm. Place: Glenmore House, 6 The Crescent, Surbiton KT6 4BN. Free car parking is available on site.

Cost: £38.40 per person (includes meal and gratuities). Drinks are not included in the price but will be available to buy from the bar.

To join us, please fill in the form (with details on the reverse of special dietary requirements) in the centre of this newsletter and send it to Jacqui Hine. Closing date for bookings: 20 November jacqui@hine.org.uk, 07817 264959 (for cancellations on the day only, please

14 Jan 2026 – National Theatre Guided Tour – Away Day

Come along for a backstage tour of the National Theatre. Founded by Sir Laurence Olivier in 1963, it is adjacent to the South Bank Centre at Waterloo. The building, designed by Sir Denys Lasdun and Peter Softley, contains three theatres, which were opened individually between 1976 and 1977. It has been a Grade II listed building since 1994.

Our tour starts at 11.15am and lasts 75 minutes. There is a limit of 20 places, so please book early.

Date: Wednesday, 14 January Meeting Time/Place: 10.15am Waterloo Station. It’s a 10-minute walk to the Theatre and we’ll stop for coffee on the way.

Price: £15 Accessibility: Only a few steps to negotiate during the tour

To join us, please fill in the form in the centre of the newsletter and send it with your cheque, made payable to Kingston u3a GAS, to Pamela Crisp. pamelacrisp50@hotmail.com 07846 722278

6th Nov – Charles Dickens Museum – Visits

48 Doughty Street in Bloomsbury was the London home of Charles Dickens 1837-1839.

The five-storey house opened as a museum 100 years ago on 9 June 1925. It holds the world’s most important Dickens collection. It contains many mementos from Dickens’s life and writings.

The house is furnished throughout as it was when Dickens and his family were in residence. There are thousands of objects on display, including the writing desk where he wrote Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities. I

n the basemen kitchen is the washhouse copper, which was cleaned out every December so they could boil the Christmas pudding. The artefacts, manuscripts, paintings and furniture give a valuable insight into Dickens’s life,

his family and the times in which they lived.

Only small handbags or backpacks are allowed in the Museum and must be worn on the front, or carried by hand.

After the visit, to round off your day, you may want to spend time in the British Museum, which is a short walk away from Dickens’s house.
Date: Thursday, 6 November

Meeting Time/Place: 10.15am, Waterloo Station opposite platforms 1-4

Travel: We leave the Station via the escalator to walk to the bus stop and take a bus to Russell Square (details to follow). After refreshments at the Caffè Tropea in the Square (not included in the price), we set off for the 15/20-minute walk to the Museum. Depending on the group size, our entry may be staggered, with half entering at 12pm and half at 12.15pm. If this is the case, the second group will stay a little longer at the Caffè to avoid congestion outside the Museum.

Cost: £11.35 (entry to Museum and self-guided tour). There is no reduction for National Art Pass holders when in a group.

Accessibility: There are five floors with many stairs. There is a staff operated platform lift as far as the 4th floor, then stairs to the attic.

 

To join us, please fill in the form in the centre of this newsletter and send it with your cheque, made payable to Kingston u3a GAS, to Hazel Burr.

 

07950 687553

 

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