Upcoming events
Tour of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)
Nov 29, 2024
Tour of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), King Charles Street, London SW1A 2AH, Friday 29 November 2024 at 2 p.m.
Following our popular FCDO tour earlier this year, we are organising another opportunity to enjoy this tour.
The current premises of the FCDO in King Charles Street, designed by the architect George Gilbert Scott and completed between 1868 and 1874, originally comprised four government departments. The tour will include the Grand Staircase in the former Foreign Office and Durbar Court in the former India Office. Depending on how many rooms are in use, it may also be possible to visit some of the fine rooms, including the Locarno Suite and the India Office Council Chamber. The tour should last about an hour.
Directions:
The nearest tube station is Westminster (Jubilee and District & Circle lines). King Charles Street is the first street on the left as you head north on Whitehall (if you get to Downing Street, you’ve gone too far). The FCDO is the building on the right-hand side of King Charles Street. Go through the arch and then half-way up the street where you will find the main entrance. Reception is through the gateway, on the left. If you bring bags with you, please note they will be checked by our security officers before you are allowed into the building.
Please arrive at the FCDO Reception by 13.40 at the latest to allow time for you to collect a visitor’s pass. To ensure entry into the FCDO you will need to bring a form of photo ID, preferably a passport or driving licence.
We remain grateful to Professor Patrick Salmon OBE, Chief Historian at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, for facilitating this event.
The event is free with a maximum capacity of 15 with subscribing members given priority. If you wish to attend, please email the Hon. Secretary on secretary@anglofinnishsociety.org.uk by 22 November 2024.
After the tour the participants have been kindly invited for tea at the National Liberal Club. Completed in 1887, the club’s Italianate building on the Embankment of the River Thames was designed by Alfred Waterhouse who is also the architect for the Natural History Museum in London.
Traditional Finnish Christmas Lunch
Dec 17, 2024
Traditional Finnish Christmas Lunch on Tuesday, 17 December 2024 from midday, at the Finnish Church in London, 33 Albion Street, London, SE16 7HZ.
This day happens to be the 113th anniversary of the foundation of the Anglo-Finnish Society in 1911.
The Anglo-Finnish Society’s Christmas lunch will again be at the Finnish Church in London, with an opportunity to enjoy traditional Finnish Christmas dishes that are not widely available in London otherwise.
The price of the buffet will be £40 per head, and it will consist of everything you would find in a Finnish Christmas table, starting with rosolli-salad, rye bread, salmon, mushroom salad etc as hors d’oeuvres or voileipäpöytä or smörgåsbord, the main course of Christmas ham with varied casseroles, and as a pudding, probably a Christmas tartelette and coffee and tea. Alcoholic drinks are not included, but as it is a private event, we can bring our own.
If you wish to book a ticket please email the Hon. Secretary by 30 November 2024 on secretary@anglofinnishsociety.org.uk and make payment.
Christmas comes to Moominvalley at Jackson Lane
Jan 3, 2025
Christmas Comes To Moominvalley – evening performance on Friday, 3 January 2025 at Jacksons Lane, 269a Archway Road, London N6 5AA
We have made arrangements for a group booking of tickets for Friday, 3 January 2025.
There will be an opportunity before the show for a short introduction to Jacksons Lane and after the show to meet the cast and we may also arrange post-show drinks.
We can offer tickets at £14 or £20 for members and guests to choose.
If you wish to book a ticket please email the Hon. Secretary on secretary@anglofinnishsociety.org.uk and make a payment of £14 or £20 per ticket.
For more details of the show, please see:
Christmas Comes to Moominvalley – Jacksons Lane Events – The Home of Contemporary Circus
Film Projection and Talk by Kirsten Adkins: Singing the Wooden House
Jan 14, 2025
Tuesday, 14 January 2025 at 6 p.m. at the Community Hall of St Anne’s Church, Soho, 55 Dean Street, London, W1D 6AF.
Film Projection and talk by Kirsten Adkins, a filmmaker based in Glasgow, of her film Singing the Wooden House (30 minutes):
A journey to a border zone, in search of a wooden house provokes questions on selfhood and national identity, place and belonging and the lasting implications of flight and return.
Rajavyöhyke translates from Finnish to English as border zone. Signs that line an 800-mile border, cross the forests and lakes of Finland and Russia. They operate as a modest indication of who belongs, and where. In April 2023 I travelled with a camera to a wooden house near the border town of Imatra, in the region of Karelia. The area was fought over during the Winter War between 1939 and 1940, and the Continuation War between 1941 and 1944. My mother and her family, who lived in the house were neither Finnish nor Russian. They were exiled to Sweden, settled in Stockholm and they never returned: some 400,000 people were evacuated as the border between Finland and the Soviet Union shifted. With a new war in Europe, rajavyöhyke articulates an increasing tension between opposing geopolitical forces. This year, Finland joined NATO. Sanctions were issued against Russia and the wooden house now owned by a family from St Petersburg is once again abandoned. In November 2023, at the time of writing, Finland closed the entire border to Russia, for the first time in its history. There is an unsettling stillness and marked absence of people near the rajavyöhyke. A few voices carry across the lakes on the border – it is unclear whether they are Russian or Finnish.
Biography
Kirsten Adkins is an artist and filmmaker who has a professional background in documentary television. Kirsten’s filmmaking and writing practice is concerned with stories of home, belonging and migration. She is currently working on a forthcoming edited anthology (Routledge 2024), and curated project space that is concerned with ways that artists and filmmakers use hybrid practices in film, poetry, song and dance to provoke questions on place, identity and belonging. Her interdisciplinary practice is informed by her work in news and factual programmes at the BBC where she worked as a producer and director. Kirsten has exhibited, presented, published, and broadcast nationally and internationally. She teaches filmmaking and artists moving image at the University of Glasgow. See also: Kirsten Adkins
Arrangements will be confirmed nearer to the time.