We have an eclectic events programme and always welcome ideas on what you would be interested in. Here are some of the events we arranged in 2016.

Bell Ringing at All Saints Church, Fulham, Thursday 27 October, 7.00pm

Bell ringing is harder than it looks, but it’s a great arm workout! Eddie, tower captain, and his team of lovely volunteers made us very welcome at All Saints Church, Fulham for our bell ringing taster session. We learned how their 10 bells worked, had very patient one on one instruction in ringing – and we were even allowed to join them in a beautiful musical peel of bells at the end of the evening. It’s been said that bell ringing is ‘heavy metal for the soul’ – and they’re right. A fun night.

Guided Shakespeare Walk, Saturday 24 September, 10.45am

It was a beautiful sunny morning for our Shakespeare walk with our guide Lance Pierson, and it was fascinating to hear tales of Elizabethan London while walking the narrow streets of Bankside. Our guide’s short readings from some of the bard’s plays certainly added to the experience. We also visited Southwark Cathedral to see the stained glass window depicting many of Shakespeare’s most famous characters, and the memorial sculpture of the playwright, clutching a sprig of fresh rosemary in his hand; rosemary, as Ophelia says to her brother Laertes in Hamlet, is for remembrance. We ended our walk with a drink at The Swan next to the Globe – with fantastic views over the river to St Paul’s.

Palace of Westminster tour, Wednesday 20 April, 12 noon

A dozen of us enjoyed a fascinating private tour of the House of Lords on April 20. It was a beautiful day, and we had a great guide who shared so much detail with us it was hard to keep up! The tour lasted 75 minutes, and we all agreed it was something that we should repeat next year, when we would aim to include the House of Commons which was in session so we weren’t able to go into the chamber.

More tours of this kind will be announced.

Exhibitions: We arranged an early evening visit to the National Portrait Gallery for ‘Vogue 100: A Century of Style’ in May, and to the Tate Modern’s retrospective of pioneering American modernist, Georgia O’Keeffe in August. 

Cooking classes: We arranged an enjoyable Raw Food class at Whole Foods Market Fulham earlier this year, and hope to try a sushi class next. Details will be announced shortly.