Wednesday 5 June, 6pm GMT: Nicolette Duckham, ‘Cast iron in South Africa’, chaired by Graham Jacobs.

Nicolette Duckham was trained as an architectural historian and building conservationist and brought up in Cape Town, South Africa. She has worked in building conservation in London for many years and is currently a founding Board member of the Commonwealth Heritage Forum.

The use of cast iron became a distinctive feature of much South African architecture in the 19th century as it was exported from industrial powerhouses in places such as Scotland to distant corners of the British Empire at the time. Some cast iron was eventually made locally but the decorative mass-produced elements manufactured by companies such as Walter MacFarlane were transported by ship, road and train to cities, towns and more rural locations throughout South Africa.

Much still survives today and has endured falling out of fashion and use to become popular once more. It is preserved in many forms, including as decoration on domestic, commercial and institutional buildings, as well as on its own in products such as fountains, bandstands, staircases, benches and lamp posts.

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