As spaces for dance, dalliance, and display, assembly rooms are the architectural eye candy to cinematic depictions of the Georgian period today. But, was the assembly room always a place of politeness and propriety, as depicted in literature and on screen? As dancers took to the floor, hundreds of eyes were upon them, making note of who danced with whom, how well they danced, and how decorous their behaviour was. Judgment was rife, as ‘narrow examinations’ and ‘thoro’ inspections’ were integral to the Georgian ballroom. From riots to affairs of the heart, snobbery, gossip, duels and attempted coup d’états, the Georgian assembly room was not always what it seemed.
Join Dr Hillary Burlock as she explores the cultural history of the assembly rooms in eighteenth-century Britain.
- Anyone booking this event will receive a copy of the recording, available to access until 07/01/2027.
- This talk is part of
Researching 18th Century Ancestors with Else Churchill
and not included in Gold membership. - 20% Discount for all Society of Genealogists Members
Click here for information about our events. Contact events@sog.org.uk if you have any questions.
About the Speaker
Hillary Burlock
Dr Hillary Burlock is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Liverpool, working on the histories of British assembly rooms in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. She was awarded her PhD in History at Queen Mary University of London in 2022 where her thesis explored intersections between Georgian political culture and social dance from 1760 to 1832. Hillary Burlock has held fellowships at the Lewis Walpole Library, Huntington Library, and Royal Archives, and has recently published edited collections on the cultural influence of Bath’s Assembly Rooms with Routledge and on dance and sociability in the long eighteenth century with Bloomsbury.
