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founder bought from his widow in 1784, in a bomb-proof strongroom under the courtyard. Upstairs is the meeting room where, on a July evening in 1858, the secretary read out Darwin's and Wallace's papers on natural selection to an audience that did not notice, with neither author present. Tours by arrangement go into the vault; the library is open to readers.","note_links":null,"reading":null,"figure":null,"figures":null,"from":"science/linnean-society","country":null,"country_name":null,"also":null,"years":null,"plaque":null,"whats_on":[{"slug":"open-house-at-the-linnean-society","name":"Open House at the Linnean Society","href":"/science/linnean-society/open-house-at-the-linnean-society/","verdict":"The rooms where Darwin and Wallace were first read out, open with no booking.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-19","to":"2026-09-19"},"types":["family","free","science"],"clue":["Science & nature"]},{"slug":"herbarium-plants-in-a-new-light","name":"Herbarium: Plants in a New Light","href":"/science/linnean-society/herbarium-plants-in-a-new-light/","verdict":"Linnaeus's own pressed plants, photographed from behind with the light coming through.","runs":{"from":"2026-09-21","to":"2026-09-21"},"types":["photography","science","talk"],"clue":["Lecture / talk","Photography"]},{"slug":"outsider-animals-cherishing-shunned-creatures","name":"Outsider Animals: Cherishing Shunned Creatures","href":"/science/linnean-society/outsider-animals-cherishing-shunned-creatures/","verdict":"What the rat, the raccoon and the gull know that the chimpanzee does not.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-15","to":"2026-10-15"},"types":["nature","science","talk"],"clue":["Lecture / talk","Science & nature"]},{"slug":"jane-coldens-plants","name":"Jane Colden's Plants","href":"/science/linnean-society/jane-coldens-plants/","verdict":"The first woman to describe American plants, working in colonial New York.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-19","to":"2026-10-19"},"types":["history","science","talk"],"clue":["Lecture / talk","Science & nature"]},{"slug":"an-evening-with-the-sunbirds-of-the-world","name":"An Evening with the Sunbirds of the World","href":"/science/linnean-society/an-evening-with-the-sunbirds-of-the-world/","verdict":"The Old World's answer to the hummingbird, which it is not related to.","runs":{"from":"2026-10-22","to":"2026-10-22"},"types":["nature","science","talk"],"clue":["Lecture / talk","Science & nature"]},{"slug":"astonished-by-beauty-the-essential-practice-of-natural-history","name":"Astonished By Beauty: The Essential Practice of Natural History","href":"/science/linnean-society/astonished-by-beauty-the-essential-practice-of-natural-history/","verdict":"A defence of looking at things closely as a serious method.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-03","to":"2026-11-03"},"types":["books","nature","science","talk"],"clue":["Lecture / talk","Science & nature"]},{"slug":"a-cabinet-of-curiosities-decorative-papers-and-natural-history","name":"A Cabinet of Curiosities: Decorative Papers and Natural History","href":"/science/linnean-society/a-cabinet-of-curiosities-decorative-papers-and-natural-history/","verdict":"Make marbled paper the eighteenth-century way, then a cabinet to line with it.","runs":{"from":"2026-11-17","to":"2026-11-17"},"types":["art","history","workshop"],"clue":["Make something","Art & design"]}],"also_in":[{"name":"Science & Engineering","href":"/science/linnean-society/"}],"maps_q":"Linnean Society, Burlington House, Piccadilly, W1J 0BF, London","in_area":{"slug":"mayfair","name":"Mayfair"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Penhaligon's","s":"penhaligons","c":"classic-british-shops","cn":"Classic British Shops","m":48},{"n":"Burlington Arcade","s":"burlington-arcade","c":"shopping","cn":"Shopping","m":53},{"n":"Royal Academy of Arts","s":"royal-academy-of-arts","c":"museums","cn":"Museums","m":53}],"near_same":[{"s":"royal-society","m":619},{"s":"royal-society-of-arts","m":1173}]},{"slug":"royal-society","name":"Royal Society","area":"St James's","address":"6-9 Carlton House Terrace, SW1Y 5AG","station":"Charing Cross","walk":5,"lat":51.5063,"lng":-0.1315,"hours":null,"hours_raw":null,"hours_source":null,"hours_url":"https://royalsociety.org/science-events-and-lectures/2026/09/open-house/","hours_short":"Open House 19 and 20 September, 10:00\u201317:00, free; the library Monday to Friday by appointment","hours_checked":"2026-09-05","hours_extra":null,"runs":null,"website":"https://royalsociety.org/","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":null,"types":["building","exhibitions","free","library","talks"],"deep":null,"scope":null,"scope_icon":null,"route":null,"venue_group":null,"geo":null,"geo_zone":null,"verdict":"The oldest scientific academy in the world, with free public lectures and exhibitions in its Carlton House Terrace rooms.","note":"Founded in 1660, presided over by Newton for twenty-four years and by every great name since, the Society moved into 6-9 Carlton House Terrace in 1967, a building that had been the German embassy until 1939 and still has Ribbentrop's staircase. Inside are the portraits of the Fellows from Boyle and Hooke to Attenborough, the charter book every Fellow has signed since 1663, and a library and archive open to anyone who books; the Open House weekend in September lets you wander it free, and the Summer Science Exhibition in July fills it with the year's research and the researchers.","note_links":null,"reading":null,"figure":null,"figures":null,"from":"science/royal-society","country":null,"country_name":null,"also":null,"years":null,"plaque":null,"also_in":[{"name":"Science & Engineering","href":"/science/royal-society/"}],"maps_q":"Royal Society, 6-9 Carlton House Terrace, SW1Y 5AG, London","in_area":{"slug":"st-jamess","name":"St James's"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Duke of York Column","s":"duke-of-york-column","c":"monuments","cn":"Monuments & Ruins","m":16},{"n":"Institute of Contemporary Arts","s":"institute-of-contemporary-arts","c":"museums","cn":"Museums","m":41},{"n":"Mall Galleries","s":"mall-galleries","c":"museums","cn":"Museums","m":107}],"near_same":[{"s":"linnean-society","m":619},{"s":"royal-society-of-arts","m":712}]},{"slug":"royal-society-of-arts","name":"Royal Society of Arts","area":"Strand","address":"8 John Adam Street, WC2N 6EZ","station":"Charing Cross","walk":3,"lat":51.509498,"lng":-0.122576,"hours":[[8.0,20.0],[8.0,20.0],[8.0,20.0],[8.0,20.0],[8.0,20.0],null,null],"hours_raw":"Mo-Fr 08:00-20:00","hours_source":"web","hours_url":"https://www.thersa.org/visit/","hours_short":null,"hours_checked":"2026-09-14","hours_extra":"Closed on public holidays and between Christmas and New Year. Visitors sign in at the door.","runs":null,"website":"https://www.thersa.org/","instagram":null,"attrs":[],"osm":"way/68807965","types":["building","exhibitions","free","library","talks"],"deep":null,"scope":null,"scope_icon":null,"route":null,"venue_group":null,"geo":null,"geo_zone":null,"verdict":"An Adam house off the Strand with a lecture room painted end to end, free exhibitions and a talks programme open to anyone.","note":"The Society was founded in 1754 to encourage arts, manufactures and commerce, and it has been arguing about how to improve things ever since - the talks programme runs through the year and is the reason most people come. Speakers are booked for what they think rather than what they are selling.\n\nThe building is the other reason. The Great Room was designed by the Adam brothers in 1774 as the place where members debated and prizes were given, and James Barry spent twenty-three years covering its walls with six paintings called The Progress of Human Knowledge and Culture - a whole theory of civilisation, painted round a room, by a man who fell out with almost everyone. Under the house are the Vaults, four interconnecting brick chambers of the 1770s left as they were built.\n\nExhibitions run in the house through the year and cost nothing to see, generally work by artists at the start of things rather than names. There is a coffee house and a library, and the door is open to anyone on a weekday.","note_links":null,"reading":null,"figure":null,"figures":null,"from":null,"country":null,"country_name":null,"also":null,"years":null,"plaque":null,"maps_q":"Royal Society of Arts, 8 John Adam Street, WC2N 6EZ, London","in_area":{"slug":"covent-garden","name":"Covent Garden"},"bank":1,"near_all":[{"n":"Voltaire","s":"voltaire","c":"world","cn":"The World in London","m":132},{"n":"Maiden Lane","s":"maiden-lane","c":"beautiful-streets","cn":"Beautiful Streets","m":137},{"n":"Sakurado","s":"sakurado-covent-garden","c":"bakeries","cn":"Bakeries","m":145}],"near_same":[{"s":"royal-society","m":712},{"s":"linnean-society","m":1173}]}]}