

Come join us at our Circa-Club monthly events including Drinks Parties & Art Exhibitions. Social Events for 200+ gay professional men and their friends in central London. Complimentary Glass of Wine on arrival. Click for more details



Immerse yourself in history, art and culture at our popular Lunchtime Lectures. Doors open at 12.45. Lectures begin at 13.15 and last approximately one hour. Colours have always been used to express complex ideas and feelings, from the blue-cloaked Virgin in medieval devotional works to the visceral smears used by Howard Hodgkin. Some of these relationships are restricted to a time or place, while others are near universal and have their roots in the earliest human history. Kassia St Clair, design writer and author of 'The Secret Lives of Colour', tells the emotionally charged stories connected with three striking colours: hematite, shocking pink and chrome yellow. Kassia St Clair is a design journalist and author. She graduated from Bristol University with a first-class honours degree in history in 2007 and went on to do a masters degree at Oxford. There she wrote her dissertation on womens masquerade costumes during the eighteenth century and graduated with a distinction. She has since written about design and culture for publications including The Economist, House & Garden, Quartz and the New Statesman. She has had a column about colour in Elle Decoration since 2013, and is a former assistant books & arts editor for The Economist. Her first book, The Secret Lives of Colour, was published in the UK by John Murray in October 2016; it will be published in America in the autumn of 2017 and is being translated into six other languages.
Tickets : £ 3 Tickets
Address : National Portrait Gallery
St Martins Place
London
WC2H 0HE
Telephone : 020 7306 0055
Website : Click Here

- 01 Oct– Klaus Wowereit (1953–), German politician & former Governing Mayor of Berlin
- 03 Oct– Erik Bruhn (1928–1986), Danish ballet dancer, choreographer, artistic director, actor & author
- 03 Oct– Gore Vidal (1925–2012), American author, essayist & political activist
- 05 Oct – John Addington Symonds (1840–1893), English poet& literary critic
- 06 Oct – Karol Szymanowski (1882–1937), Polish composer & pianist
- 07 Oct – Dan Savage (1964–), American sex advice columnist
- 10 Oct – Wade MacLauchlan (1954–), Canadian politician, Premier of Prince Edward Island
- 11 Oct – Jerome Robbins (1918–1998), American theatre producer, director & choreographer
- 11 Oct – Matt Bomer (1977–), American actor
- 13 Oct – Ian Thorpe (1982–), Australian freestyle swimmer, five-time Olympic Gold Medallist
- 14 Oct – Isaac Mizrahi (1961–), American fashion designer & tv presenter
- 14 Oct – Ben Whishaw (1980–), English actor
- 15 Oct – Michel Foucault (1926–1984), French philosopher
- 16 Oct – Oscar Wilde (1854–1900), Irish writer, poet & aesthete
- 17 Oct – Sir Cameron Anthony Mackintosh (1946- ), British theatrical producer & theatre owner notable for his association with many commercially successful musicals
- 17 Oct – Montgomery Clift (1920–1966), American actor
- 17 Oct – Mark Gatiss (1966–), English actor, screenwriter & novelist
- 17 Oct – Ryan McGinley (1977–), American photographer
- 18 Oct – Uzi Even (1940–), Israeli professor, former politician & 1st openly gay member of Israeli Parliament
- 19 Oct – George Nader (1921–2002), American actor
- 19 Oct – Robert Reed (1932–1992), American actor
- 20 Oct – Arthur Rimbaud (1854–1891), French poet
- 21 Oct – William Dale Jennings (1917–2000), American LGBT rights activist, playwright & author
- 21 Oct – Peter Mandelson (1953–), British Labour politician, former European Commissioner for Trade
- 21 Oct – Andrew Scott (1976–), Irish actor
- 22 Oct – Brian Boitano, American figure skater, 1988 Olympic Gold Medallist
- 22 Oct – Lord Alfred Douglas (1870–1945), British poet & translator
- 22 Oct – Marc Shaiman (1959–), American film/TV/theatre composer, lyricist & arranger
- 24 Oct – Prince Pierre, Duke of Valentinois (1895–1964), French aristocrat & Monegasque royalty
- 24 Oct – August von Platen-Hallermünde (1796–1835), German poet
- 25 Oct - David Furnish (1962- ), Canadian filmmaker & former advertising executive married to Elton John
- 25 Oct – Rylan Clarke-Neal (1988- ), English tv & radio presenter, singer, narrator & model
- 26 Oct – Glen Murray (1957–), Canadian politician, world's first openly gay mayor of a major city (Winnipeg, MB)
- 28 Oct – Francis Bacon (1909–1992), Irish painter
- 28 Oct – Frank Ocean (1987–), American singer-songwriter
- 30 Oct – Timothy Findley (1930–2002), Canadian novelist & playwright