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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
London's first university, founded to admit the people Oxford and Cambridge would not, with a public lecture series running since 1942 and two museums open to anyone.
Public talksExhibitionsCollections on showBuilding toursFree to enterWorth it for the building
The university opened in 1826 as an alternative to Oxford and Cambridge, which admitted only Anglicans: this one took students of any religion or none, and was the first in England to admit women on equal terms. William Wilkins's portico and dome on Gower Street were built to say so in stone, and the Main Quad behind them is open to walk into.
What the public gets is a large and scattered programme. The Lunch Hour Lectures have run since 1942 and are free, an hour at one o'clock on whatever the speaker has been working on; the Faculty of Laws in Bentham House puts on evening lectures most weeks in term, usually free and usually streamed as well; the Institute of Education, the Institute of Archaeology and the Bartlett School of Architecture each run their own. The Grant Museum of Zoology and the Petrie Museum of Egyptian and Sudanese Archaeology are listed here separately and are open to anyone, and Jeremy Bentham's preserved body sits in a glass case in the Student Centre on Gordon Square, visible from the street without going in.
The campus is not one building. Events are spread across Bloomsbury from Endsleigh Gardens to Guilford Street, and a listing here names the building it is in.
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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.