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London's societies, institutes and universities, and the doors they open to everyone else: lecture theatres, libraries, collections and free exhibitions at institutions that have been arguing about the world since the seventeenth century. Most of it costs nothing. Events are also listed under What's On.
Talks and exhibitions this week are in What's On
The oldest society for the study of the past in Britain, giving lunchtime lectures anyone may attend in its rooms at Burlington House.
Public talksCollections on showWorth it for the building
The Society has been collecting and arguing about material evidence since the early eighteenth century, and moved into the east wing of Burlington House in 1874, alongside four other learned societies and the Royal Academy. Its own collection is the reason the rooms are worth being in: fifteenth-century panel paintings of the life of Saint Etheldreda, portraits, seals, and a library built up over three centuries.
The lecture programme is the way in. Lunchtime lectures and the Ordinary Meetings of Fellows are both marked open to anyone to attend, and the subjects are narrower and better for it - retrospective diagnosis of the illnesses of Roman emperors, the excavations at Tintagel, a new account of Tudor art, the history of the Parliamentary Archives. Most are run with a video stream as well as a room.
The rooms are open for lectures and events rather than to fixed hours; the building also opens for the Open House festival each September.
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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.