International Culture

The national cultural institutes and diaspora cultural centres that keep a public door in London, with the libraries, galleries, film programmes and language classes they run, and the international festivals that return to the same ground each year. Much of what they put on is free.

Where those countries' people lived, in the past tense: The World in London

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The Africa Centre

Sixty years of African cultural life in London, now in a Southwark railway arch and fighting for its future.

ExhibitionsConcerts

The Africa Centre opened in Covent Garden in 1964 and was for decades the place in London where African writers, musicians and politicians met: Fela Kuti played there, and the anti-apartheid movement used it as a base. It moved to Southwark and reopened in 2022 with a gallery, a restaurant and a bar, four hireable rooms and an arch of its own.

It is a charity rather than a state body, which is what makes it the exception on this map and also why its programme reaches across a continent instead of representing one government. That independence has a cost: the centre is in an open financial crisis and is campaigning to keep the Southwark building, and its published programme has thinned to almost nothing. The doors, the gallery and the restaurant are open. Check before travelling for anything else.

Where
Arch 28, Old Union Yard Arches, SE1 0BL
Nearest station
Southwark · 3 min walk

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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.

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