Oliver Gerrish

Oliver Gerrish Biography

Oliver Gerrish is a charismatic and well-respected keynote speaker on history and architecture.

Background and career

He once tried to build an entire miniature version of Bath on the sitting room floor out of paper and glue while his parents were out. He was five.

Oli's love of architecture started at a very early age. From about the age of three he would try to copy the facades of Nash's palatial terraces around Regents Park, asking his mother for a yellow pencil of exactly the right shade for the stucco-work. At school Oli was vice-chairman of the Old Speech Room Gallery, his school museum, and one of the first exhibitions he co-organised was on the Old Harrovian Arts and Crafts architect, E.S Prior, whose understated, elegant buildings adorn various parts of Harrow on the Hill.He went as a choral scholar to Lichfield Cathedral and there he started to write his first proper architectural piece on a little known historic, Peak District manor house called Casterne Hall.

Oli won a place to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama as a countertenor and while there got in touch with The Georgian Group, an encounter which led to his foundation of The Young Georgians. What started as a one-off party for a select group, has grown into a fully fledged movement on both sides of the Atlantic. The group's Townhouse Parties offer a modern slant on the extravagant balls of the Georgian era, incorporating fine food and wine, music, dance and theatre.

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