Public lectures/workshops in London (or EU)

July 18, 2018 7:26 AM

I plan on visiting London in August, September and October. I am looking for public lectures (could be paid, or it could be non-public but tolerant of public infiltrators) on just about any intellectually interesting topic - philosophy, religion, politics, psychotherapy, cryptoeconomics, history, art, music, writing, well-being etc etc etc. Any thoughts and ideas of where to start looking? Cheers.
posted by vizsla to Education (16 answers total)

There are free public lectures at Gresham College.
posted by misteraitch at 7:34 AM on July 18, 2018 [2 favorites]

List of free events at LSE and UCL.
posted by like_neon at 7:37 AM on July 18, 2018 [1 favorite]

This is probably too broad to be helpful, but I think all the big public museums have calendars of talks, i.e. the British Library, the Royal Academy, the V&A… and so do the learned societies like the Geological Society and the Linnean Society. Some of them more niche than others.
posted by Bloxworth Snout at 7:41 AM on July 18, 2018 [1 favorite]

Talks at the Royal Institute.
posted by snarfois at 7:43 AM on July 18, 2018 [1 favorite]

Adam Smith institute
Waterstones
London Review Bookshop
Also, meetup and eventbrite have many listed, for example the Aws user group
posted by JonB at 7:43 AM on July 18, 2018 [1 favorite]

Neither of these are exhaustive, but you can try LectureList, which is - well - a list of lectures; and Ian Visits, a London events blog that tends away from the usual "pay £35 to eat some locally-made cheese on a rooftop while an early-90s action film plays in the background" and towards lectures and, like, limited-ticket guided tours of buildings that were once used in 1723 as periwig storage houses for a proto-socialist earl.
posted by severalbees at 7:45 AM on July 18, 2018 [2 favorites]

Checkout Conway Hall and The Horse Hospital.
posted by oh pollo! at 7:46 AM on July 18, 2018 [2 favorites]

The Wellcome Collection does Packed Lunches on Wednesdays in which a local scientist is interviewed and answers questions from the audience about their research.
posted by IjonTichy at 7:47 AM on July 18, 2018 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: So good. So very very good. Don't think I have ever had a better set of answers to a question I posted and it's only been 20 minutes since posting ...

I will systematically go through every one of these answers and any more than get posted.

Th-thank you.
posted by vizsla at 7:54 AM on July 18, 2018

Upcoming events at the Institute for Historical Research
posted by praemunire at 8:01 AM on July 18, 2018 [1 favorite]

I have attended some good talks in the past at the Globe Theatre. Some £15, less for students if that's up your alley.
posted by pointystick at 8:36 AM on July 18, 2018 [1 favorite]

British Museum for history/archaeology lectures
posted by tinkletown at 10:50 AM on July 18, 2018

The School of Life. Any of the art galleries!
posted by teststrip at 11:17 AM on July 18, 2018 [1 favorite]

The City Lit has one day workshops/classes on a huge range of topics.

(On first browse they look expensive, but if you sort cheapest first there are some free/cheaper ones, so maybe the more spendy ones are full day sessions).
posted by penguin pie at 12:22 PM on July 18, 2018 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I also got a direct message from someone involved in Thames Discovery which looks like an interesting archaeological exploration of the Thames River and whose talks and workshops are free.

Thanks again to everybody for their suggestions. Looks like I will have a ton of interesting content to explore when I am in London.
posted by vizsla at 2:23 AM on July 19, 2018

As someone who lives in London this is a great question and I'm finding it useful myself, thanks for asking!
posted by like_neon at 2:53 AM on July 19, 2018 [1 favorite]