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London's learned societies and their public doors: the lecture theatres, libraries, collections and exhibitions of the institutions that have been arguing about the world since the seventeenth century, most of them free to walk into. What is on is listed under each society, and in What's On.
Talks and exhibitions this week are in What's On
Linnaeus's own specimens and library, in Burlington House, with free evening lectures through the year.
Public talksLibrary you can useCollections on showFree to enterWorth it for the building
Also in Science & Engineering.
The world's oldest active biological society, at Burlington House since 1856 beside the Royal Academy, keeps the herbarium, insects, shells and library that Carl Linnaeus assembled and that its 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.
Tours by arrangement; the library Tuesday to Friday 10:00–17:00 by appointment
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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.