Explore Culture, History & Humanities Courses
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.
- Contemporary British and international fiction
Course start date: Wed 17 Sep 2025Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Aamer HusseinWe will be looking at novels from recent years that explore various dimensions of culture and society, reading and discussing a brief and careful selection of novels in English from several countries, diverse in style and genre. Titles include Piranesi, Susanna Clarke's mysterious and 'weird' tale of secrets and lost texts, William Boyd's Trio, which follows the life of an actress, a film producer, and a writer obsessed with the suicide of Virginia Woolf, Small Things Like These by Clare Keegan, in which a coal merchant becomes involved with the fate of a pregnant teenager trapped in a Magdalene Laundry, and Michelle de Kretser's Theory and Practice follows the academic trajectory of a Sri Lankan feminist researching the novels of Woolf.Full fee £259.00 Senior fee £207.00 Concession £168.00 - The emergence of Europe 300-1000 Course start date: Fri 19 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Vanessa KingExplore reasons for the fall of Rome and the emergence of the ‘barbarian’ kingdoms of western Europe. Was it really ‘the Dark Ages’? Were the Vikings simply long-haired tourists who occasionally beat up the natives?Full fee £279.00 Senior fee £223.00 Concession £181.00 - Archaeology of LondonCourse start date: Mon 22 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Jill HummerstoneExplore the archaeology and history of London through its cultural monuments, topography and material remains to more fully appreciate the rich archaeological evidence of the capital.
Tutor: Jill Hummerstone
Full fee £279.00 Senior fee £223.00 Concession £181.00 - Looking at paintings Course start date: Mon 22 Sep 2025 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Off Site
Tutors: Julia MusgraveLook at masterpieces in major London galleries in this introduction to European painting. Explore different painting techniques and genres (landscape, portrait and history painting) for a basic understanding and increased enjoyment of Western art.Full fee £299.00 Senior fee £239.00 Concession £194.00 - Literary Science Course start date: Mon 22 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Julian BirkettFrom the theory of evolution to quantum physics and artificial intelligence, modern science has upended our understanding of the world and our place in it. How have writers of fiction responded to these radical changes?
We consider a range of fiction, including Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Morpho Eugenia (from Angels and Insects) by AS Byatt, Copenhagen by Michael Frayn and Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro.Full fee £259.00 Senior fee £207.00 Concession £168.00 - Medieval London Course start date: Tue 23 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Mike BerlinThis course explores the forces that shaped London between the coming of the Normans and the age of
the Tudors. - Victorian Visions Course start date: Tue 23 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Julian Birkett“It was the best of times…it was the worst of times.”
How did the Victorians see the world? They lived through one of the most dramatic periods in our history – and their literature reflects that. Victorian Visions looks at a wide variety of themes in Victorian culture: from the city to the home, from dreams to nightmares, from faith to doubt, from moralism to decadence, from ideology to empire.Full fee £259.00 Senior fee £207.00 Concession £168.00 - Wild Nights: poetry and desire Course start date: Wed 24 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Laurie SmithSome friendships, including with people of the same sex, may become so intense as to be love, though not necessarily of a sexual kind. We will look at some great poets who have had this experience and expressed it brilliantly in their work: Shakespeare and Byron, Tennyson and Emily Dickinson, Arthur Rimbaud and Thomas Hardy, C P Cavafy and the great 20th century Russian poet Some Marina Tsvetaeva, and finally our recent Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy.Full fee £259.00 Senior fee £207.00 Concession £168.00 - National Gallery Course start date: Wed 24 Sep 2025 (and 3 other dates)
Location on this date: Off Site
Tutors: Leslie PrimoDiscuss a differently themed group of paintings each week in front of the pictures. An opportunity to understand our national collection in greater depth.Full fee £299.00 Senior fee £239.00 Concession £194.00 - The art and culture of 17th century London Course start date: Fri 26 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Off Site
Tutors: Julie BarlowDiscover the 17th century: a time of upheaval in Europe, intercontinental trade, religious schisms and a wide range of artistic styles. See its art, architecture and design in London’s galleries and museums. #arthistory #explorelondon #walkingtour.Full fee £299.00 Senior fee £239.00 Concession £194.00 - The foreign invention of British art Course start date: Fri 26 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Leslie PrimoTrace the importance of foreigners to the British art scene from the Tudor period to the Baroque. How did artists like Holbein, Dobson, van Somer and van Dyck influence the British School?Full fee £259.00 Senior fee £207.00 Concession £168.00 - The Altarpiece in Northern European ArtCourse start date: Tue 30 Sep 2025
Location on this date: Online
Tutors: Emma Rose BarberThe Northern Renaissance altarpiece is a thing of beauty: exquisitely painted in oil, full of rich, sumptuous decorative details, a broad, vivid and brilliant colour range, artistically innovative, conventional and experimental, distinctive and complex. Come and find out more about these works of art on this ten-week online course, where we cover some of the highlight art made by highlight artists such as Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden.
Full fee £259.00 Senior fee £207.00 Concession £168.00 - Ways into art history: understanding paintingCourse start date: Thu 2 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Elizabeth EyresThis course will provide you with a visual toolkit that will enable you to understand and analyse the appearance of artworks. You will explore their formal qualities, in other words the things that make paintings and sculpture look the way they do. You will discover how an artist gets from a blank canvas, wood panel, sheet of paper to a finished artwork, and the visual decisions that have to be made along the way.
Full fee £259.00 Senior fee £207.00 Concession £168.00 - Styles in art: from medieval to modernCourse start date: Mon 12 Jan 2026
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Leslie PrimoA survey of Western art from the Gothic to the Victorian age, discussing Renaissance, Mannerism, Baroque, Neoclassicism, Romanticism and Realism, and the ideas shaping each period.Full fee £259.00 Senior fee £207.00 Concession £168.00 - Jews in London from the 1650s to the 1950s: a closer lookCourse start date: Tue 13 Jan 2026
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: David RosenbergExplore 300 years of Jewish life, culture and history in London from the small scale resettlement in the 1650s through to the 1950s when the borough of Hackney was home to London’s largest and most diverse Jewish community.
Full fee £259.00 Senior fee £207.00 Concession £168.00
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