The Lost Lectures, Lost on Trial at Hornsey Town Hall

There's an L at the top of that. 

The lovely folks at Lost Lectures (fronted by a bubbly chap called Julian) host themed lectures around London (and NYC, and Berlin!) at secret locations. Tonight we hiked out to Hornsey Town Hall in North London to see:

• Elizabeth Pisani - a woman who was an expert on Indonesia but spoke about corruption(ish). 
• David Allen Green - a lawyer who spoke about law and magic
• Killing Kittens - the founder of a sex party business who talked about herself
• Andy Zaltzman - satirist for hire 
• Andrew Logan - the founder of Alternative Miss World who introduced us, by slideshow, of all the Alternative Miss World winners from the 70s to 2014
• Rafe Ofer from Sofar Sounds - introducing a concept of bringing music, gigs and music lovers together

The concept of the Lost Lectures is certainly appealing and clever, if one is up for a night of unexpected twists and turns, with interesting and engaging speakers. Sadly, this evening's speakers ranged from being amazing, funny and inspiring (Andy Zaltzman and Rafe Ofer) to endearing (Andrew Logan) to.....the lady from Killing Kittens. She runs a sex party business that is supposed to engender women to embrace their sexuality. That started off being really promising but then descended into toe curling disaster once she went on some convoluted tangent on feminism. I worry that she might be sad that I didn't enjoy her talk, but then again, she did quote Coco Chanel, "I don't care what you think about me. I don't think about you at all." Fair enough, so I don't suppose she would be concerned that my friend described her as "amateur TED Talks".

The star of the show was definitely Hornsey Town Hall which is now being used as an art space. It's a beautiful example of modernist architecture. The building was closed down in the 80s and despite the art centre having a short term lease, the long term future of the Town Hall is still undecided. Hopefully it won't be turned into luxury flats, as on our visit this evening, when the building was rammed full of happy and excited people, bringing to life the faded grandeur of the Town Hall.

The Lost Lectures

Details: Tonight's Lost Lectures was £45 per person. Drinks and food available. See their website for forthcoming events. www.thelostlectures.com