What’s On

Events and Special Open Days

ALL ARE WELCOME – BOOK ONLINE HERE

The Women of Valentines Mansion – Special Sunday – 22 March 2026

In celebration of Women’s History Month, visit Valentines Mansion for this very special open day.  As well as Artist’s Open Studios, there will be special activities to honour the many remarkable women from our history throughout the house: music and period dancing, quizzes, trails, talks and craft activities for children and adults throughout the day. Come and learn how some of these women called for change or articulated their hopes for a better future.

Free Talks (suitable for adults):

  • 12:10pm – 12:40pm: Part 1 – Women of Valentines – Tillotson and Finch
  • 1.30-2.00: Part 2 – Women of Valentines – Surman and Raymond
  • 2.30-3.00: Part 3 – Women of Valentines – Cameron and Welstead
  • 3.30 – 4.00: Part 4 – Women of Valentines – Holcombe, Ingleby and Martha Findlay the Housekeeper

Organised by the Friends of Valentines Mansion.

No need to book , but it is useful for us if you sign up in advance .

Springtime Guided Heritage Tree Walk
Easter Monday 6 April 2026

Join us for a Spring Walk!

Following on from the very successful (though wet!) Autumn Walk, we produced a new publication, an illustrated booklet containing a guided tour of 25 trees in this historic parkland, reflecting the different layers of tree planting over hundreds of years.  We are grateful to Stephen Smith and Christine Fairfax for their work in updating the pamphlet, which is now available from the Gardener’s Cottage Café, price £2.

We are delighted that Stephen Smith expert garden historian and horticulturalist, will be leading a Tree Walk on Easter Monday, 6th April. Book online or phone 020 8553 5940.

Meet by the porte cochère at 2.00 pm. The walk lasts approximately one hour.  There are some grassy or muddy areas you may wish to explore, so please wear suitable footwear, though most of the walk is flat and accessible using footpaths.  

The walk will end at the delightful Gardener’s Cottage Cafe for a cup of tea!

SALACIOUS SOUTHWARK – a walk led by London Guide Eleanor Bloom Tuesday 28 April 2026

MEMBERS ONLY : If not a member join today only £10 a year Members get a regular newsletter , invitations to members’ outings, events and Special Open Days.

In the early 1760s Sir Charles Raymond purchased the original painting of Southwark Fair by William Hogarth. Come and see the copy purchased by the Friends in the Raymond Room

Guide Eleanor Bloom will lead a walk along the south bank of the river, passing a medieval palace, Shakespeare’s theatres, Canterbury Pilgrims, Frost Fairs and the galleried coaching inn, The George. The tour takes two hours, finishing at The George for lunch.
Places are limited, so if you want to come please let us know as soon as possible 
Tickets are £10 for the tour – lunch is not included. Book online or phone 07757 115286
Further information will be provided nearer the time for those who have signed up.


SPECIAL SUNDAY 5 JULY 2026

Open Day Times

Sundays and Mondays

  • 12.00-5.00 (March – October)
  • 11.00-3.00 (November – February)

We are always looking for new Volunteers to welcome visitors on Open Days. If that would interest you, please go to our Contact Us page and leave us a message.

Recent Outings and Talks for Members

Visit to the Church of St Lawrence Jewry

On March 21st 2025, a group of members met for a fascinating tour of the church where John and Elizabeth Tillotson are buried. We didn’t know that before this outing! You can read more about this in the next newsletter.

The extraordinary life of Lady Ann Fanshawe

Writer and historian Lucy Moore talked about this Civil War Heroine followed by a visit to Valence House in Dagenham where the Fanshawe family lived for a comparatively short time in the 16th century, and where a collection of their family portraits is housed. We were privileged to be given a behind-the-scenes tour of the collection by museum curator Leeanne Westwood, art historian.

Greenwich

Outing to the Queen’s House to see the Van De Veldes exhibition “Greenwich, Art and the Sea”.  1.00 – 2.00 concert by student harpists of Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, in the Great Hall of the Queen’s House.

Recent events at the mansion

Heritage Tree Walk – 19 October 2025

Despite the weather ,led by Stephen Smith an enthusiastic group of 30 folk plus 3 doggies joined our Heritage Tree Walk round the “Pleasure Park and Ornamental Waters” in Valentines Park. The route included the East Lawn, the Wilderness, the American Garden and the Ornamental Lake.  

Botanical Illustration – Art, Science and Discovery -14 October 2025

Lucy T Smith, award-winning botanical illustrator, gave a fascinating talk about the excitement of working at Kew Gardens.  Using highlights from her 30-year career, she showed how contemporary botanical illustrators continue a centuries-long tradition of collaboration with botanists, documenting and sharing their exciting discoveries in plant science.

On Sunday 3rd August Valentines Mansion was buzzing with people playing a variety of games, old and new for a Summer Special Sunday with a difference ! A day organised by the Friends with the help of local U3A groups.

A Scottish Evening 29th January 2025

Who were the Camerons who lived @ValMansion
at the end of the 18th century?

We were delighted to welcome the talented Woodford Singers as part of our Scottish Evening.

From Tiny Acorns II, 2024

FROM TINY ACORNS II 28th February 2024, an event and public meeting to discuss supporting the park
Click here to read about other past events

The Friends Of Valentines Mansion, a registered charity founded in 2000, hold up to six ticketed events each year to raise funds to spend on activities and objects that improve everyone’s enjoyment and understanding of Valentines Mansion, Gardens and Park, owned by the London Borough of Redbridge.

The Friends have clocked up many years of fundraising and celebrating the preservation of Redbridge’s most beautiful community asset, managed by Vision RCL.

Valentines Mansion Events

Full details about all events and opening times at Valentines Mansion and Gardens are available from Vision RCL’s website. For information on facilities and rooms for hire at Valentines Mansion, contact +44 (0) 8708 8100 or email hiringvalentines@visionrcl.org.uk.

On the 2nd Monday of the month from 10:30am- 11:15am. Come and enjoy a wonderful selection of books and rhymes for under 5’s with our brilliant storytellers.
FREE No need to book just drop in !

Gallery Exhibitions

There are changing EXHIBITIONS in the Mansion Gallery on the ground floor – FREE ENTRY on Open Days Sunday and Monday.

Pace The Shallow Sea

From Monday 9 March to Monday 6 April 2026

A curated selection of works from the oeuvre of Paul Good and Kirsty Wood,  Mansion resident artists. Inspired by James Hutton’s vision of deep time—“no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end”—it traces connections between past and present. In dim light, a boat graveyard video evokes suspended histories, corroded hulls poised between presence and disappearance. Material fragments and subtle interventions explore impermanence, erosion, and return, where human and geological time converge.

Click here to read about past exhibitions

Valentines Mansion Resident Artists

The Resident Artists’ Studios are on the top floor. Keep an eye out for details of the next Open Studios when this part of the mansion, normally closed to the public, can be visited.

ARTISTS’ OPEN STUDIOS

Sunday 22 March 2026

Watch demonstrations, take part in workshops, meet the artists and buy works of art at Open Studios event. Historically the servants quarters,  the top floor of the Mansion is now a series of art studios from which a number of local artists practice a variety of mediums, including basketry, textiles, fused glass, paintings, sculpture, ceramics and much more.  Normally a private workspace, the Open Studio events give the public a chance to step inside these creative spaces.

Book for Fan Fused Glass Workshops