History, culture & writing - Off Site - Keeley Street

Explore History, Culture & Writing

Explore our extraordinary range of History, Culture and Writing courses and lectures. We offer both introductory and specialist in-depth courses to suit all levels of interest and experience, from ‘How to read a film’ and World literature, to Creative non-fiction writing courses and American history and Politics courses.

Our tutors are experts in their fields and experienced educators; many have published, teach in universities or share their expertise in the media. Tutors share their knowledge and passion through presentations, readings, interactive discussion and exercises, analysis, and other activities.

Many students return to take more courses, telling us they enjoy being part of our City Lit Learning community.

Our popular courses often sell out quickly, so we invite you to browse and book your place now.

Courses available both in-person and online

We offer a range of long and short courses allowing you to choose between in-person and online learning.

Learn in the centre of London with our in-person courses. Our purpose-built facilities in Covent Garden mean we are ideally located and easy to get to. 

See our guide to online learning for more information about accessing our live online courses.

All our courses are live, interactive, and taught by expert tutors. No matter how you prefer to learn, we've got the class for you.

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  1. An introduction to European decorative arts at the V&A
    Course start date:  Thu 18 Apr 2024

    Location on this date:  Off Site

    Tutors:  Andreas Petzold
    The Victoria and Albert Museum has one of the finest and most comprehensive collections of European decorative arts in the world. This course aims to provide an introduction to these rich collections. It will focus on the period 1500 to 1900, but references later developments. The main media will be explored including textiles, ceramics, glass, metalwork, and silver.
    Full fee £89.00 Senior fee £71.00 Concession £58.00
  2. Cuneiform. An introduction for beginners
    Course start date:  Fri 19 Apr 2024

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Hugo Cook
    This four-week course provides a foundation in Old Persian Cuneiform, allowing students to explore the words and world of the ancient Persians. The class will be held at City Lit and includes visits to the British Museum.
    Full fee £139.00 Senior fee £139.00 Concession £90.00
  3. Private portraits: painted miniatures in early modern Europe
    Course start date:  Fri 26 Apr 2024

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Elizabeth Eyres
    Portrait miniatures are some of the most exquisite and beguiling likenesses ever produced. Their tiny scale and painstaking creation give them an intricacy, intimacy and sense of intrigue. These often reflect the circumstances in which they were gifted to their new owners by the person commissioning them, and both the images and their wider contexts repay our close study on this course.
    Full fee £99.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £64.00
  4. Struggle to be heard: Rimbaud, Cavafy, Tsvetaeva, Binta Breeze
    Evening
    Course start date:  Thu 2 May 2024

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Laurie Smith
    We look at four poets who struggled to be heard or accepted because their work was so different from what their society expected. What were the barriers they had to overcome and how did they win through to become admired and highly regarded? What made one of the poets stop writing at the age of 21 and the other three continue for the rest of their lives? What makes the poetry of all of them so original, and what can we learn from their resilience?
    Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £69.00 Concession £45.00
  5. Looking at design: Arts and Crafts to Art Deco
    Weekend
    Course start date:  Sat 4 May 2024

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Rachel Sanders
    Study the design reform movements – Arts and Crafts, Aesthetic Movement, Art Nouveau and Art Deco – and analyse a wide range of products, including fashion and textiles, graphics, furniture and architecture within their social, historic and artistic context. Includes a museum visit.
    Full fee £99.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £64.00
  6. An introduction to stained glass at the V&A
    Course start date:  Thu 9 May 2024

    Location on this date:  Off Site

    Tutors:  Andreas Petzold
    Stained glass has been described as the most original and important medium in the high Middle Ages. The Victoria and Albert Museum has one of the finest and most comprehensive collections of stained glass in the world, spanning the twelfth century to the modern period. The course will provide an introduction to this medium and the collection of it in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
    Full fee £59.00 Senior fee £47.00 Concession £38.00
  7. Looking for the Golden Fleece: Jason and the Argonauts
    Course start date:  Tue 4 Jun 2024

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Maria Contos
    Come and explore the journey of the Argonauts and discover Jason.
    Full fee £49.00 Senior fee £39.00 Concession £32.00
  8. The criminalization of protests and democracy in Western Europe
    Evening
    Course start date:  Tue 4 Jun 2024

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    This course looks at the responses of Western European governments to recent protests and asks what the increasing criminalisation of protests means for the state of democracy in these countries.
    Full fee £99.00 Senior fee £99.00 Concession £64.00
  9. 20th century design: modern and post-modern
    Weekend
    Course start date:  Sat 8 Jun 2024

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Rachel Sanders
    Study the dominant design aesthetics of the twentieth century – its development, successes and fall from popularity. Movements will include Constructivism, the Bauhaus, Pop and Punk. Design practices will include graphics, architecture and furniture. #arthistory #weekendcourse #design #modernism #bauhaus.
    Full fee £99.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £64.00
  10. Beckett and The Divine Comedy: a lifelong influence
    Course start date:  Thu 13 Jun 2024

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Stephen Winfield
    Explore the intimate relationship between Beckett’s universe of unbelief, presided over by a Godot who never comes, and Dante’s poem, the most exalted, vastly influential literary expression of medieval Christianity, whose presence can be felt everywhere in the Irishman’s long oeuvre, in every genre – in his plays, novels, stories, poems, essays - and at every stage of his career. What brought them together, and what were the results?
    Full fee £99.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £64.00
  11. Left populism and socialism today
    Evening
    Course start date:  Tue 2 Jul 2024

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    This course will provide an overview of the politics of ‘Left populism’ in their historical perspective and contemporary manifestations as well as in their relation to socialist politics.
    Full fee £99.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £50.00
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