As part of St Olave’s monthly Lecture Series and for Bacon 400, FBS members Sally Gibbins, Gary Cordice and Jono Freeman gave a talk about the hidden world of Tudor Spies and intrigue centred around St Olave Hart Street.
Revd. Phillip Dawson gave a review of the evening:
“22nd September 2026
Over 110 people joined us for a special Choral Evensong with Tudor music, followed by our first St Olave Lecture of the autumn.
A huge thank you to Sally Gibbins, Principal of the Francis Bacon Society for a fascinating and entertaining talk which placed St Olave’s and its neighbourhood at the heart of the secret world of Elizabethan espionage.
Sally drew together the stories of figures including Sir Francis Walsingham, Peter Capponi, and Francis and Anthony Bacon, revealing some of the remarkable connections between the parish and the intelligence networks of Tudor England.
With Tudor music, live character performances by Sally’s actor and musician friends Gary Cordice and Jono Freeman and the historic setting of St Olave’s itself, this month’s lecture was a unique and memorable experience.
We were also delighted that Professor David Stupples joined us and brought along an Enigma machine to demonstrate after Sally’s talk. It provided a fascinating bridge from the world of Anthony Bacon, codes and ciphers to the development of cryptography and the work of Alan Turing and the codebreakers at Bletchley Park centuries later.
Thank you to Sally, David, all the performers and musicians, and everyone who joined us for such a memorable evening.”
Thanks to Revd. Phillip Dawson for making us so welcome in his beautiful church.
A transcript of the talk is available here: Here
A recording of the talk : Here
Booklet about the talk: Here