New Courses
From boxercise to writing about music, we are regularly expanding our offering and adding more courses for you to choose from. Don't forget to check back to see what's new at City Lit.
Whether you are looking to take up a new hobby, pick up a new skill or learn more about your area of interest, we have the course for you.
Featured Courses
Filters
- Boxercise
Course start date: Thu 25 Sep 2025Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Jayde DujonThis is in-person mixed ability course. Learn boxing basics for general fitness and cardiovascular improvement in a fun and safe way.Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £143.00 Concession £125.00 - Aldous Huxley and His ContemporariesCourse start date: Fri 3 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
During the 1920s, Aldous Huxley was beguiled by D.H. Lawrence and his life-affirming philosophy, but after moving to California in 1937 he became increasingly influenced by mysticism. He was initiated by Swami Prabhavananda of the Hollywood Vedanta Society, who would become Christopher Isherwood’s guru. On this course, we will explore how the spiritual interests of these British writers shaped the literary work they wrote in America.Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £143.00 Concession £116.00 - Contemporary Body Horror: Bodies, Trauma, and TransformationCourse start date: Thu 9 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Katie GossThis in-college literature course delves into the provocative and unsettling world of contemporary body horror - primarily by femme and queer authors. Over six-weeks we will explore how writers reframe the body as a site of both violence and transformation: using aesthetics of the uncanny, grotesque or abject to disturb and overturn societal norms surrounding gender, sexuality, identity, and power.Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £143.00 Concession £116.00 - Understanding the Digital World Course start date: Wed 15 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Marc CohenThis is a new course and we are currently preparing the course outline.Full fee £249.00 Senior fee £199.00 Concession £162.00 - What is a Short Story?Course start date: Sat 18 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Alexander Fairbairn-DixonWhat is a short story? Come and discuss its characteristics, its length, design, mood and style. What distinguishes it from other kinds of short narrative? We’ll compare short stories to other forms, such as myths, legends, anecdotes, fabliaux, parables, fables, and ‘tales’. We’ll look at some of the greatest practitioners including Edgar Allan Poe, Katherine Mansfield, and O’ Henry.Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £55.00 Concession £45.00 - Journeys to the UnderworldCourse start date: Tue 21 Oct 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
The katabasis or journey into the underworld is a standard element of many classical texts. This course explores what this journey and the return to the world above means in a selection of Greek and Roman texts with examples taken from mythological poetry, epic, and Athenian drama. We will also look at how later writers (Joseph Conrad, Margaret Atwood, Elena Ferrante) adopt and adapt this trope using it to explore colonialism, feminism and motherhood.Full fee £219.00 Senior fee £175.00 Concession £142.00 - Big Band: from 1920s Chicago to London 2000sCourse start date: Mon 3 Nov 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Albi GravenerWe will explore the history and evolution of the big band and large ensemble in jazz throughout the 20th century.Full fee £89.00 Senior fee £71.00 Concession £62.00 - Shakespeare: King Lear and The TempestCourse start date: Thu 6 Nov 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Sophie OxenhamJoin us to explore two of Shakespeare’s greatest plays, his tragedy King Lear, and his late ‘romance’, The Tempest. We’ll consider the connections – and differences - between these works, thinking about Shakespeare’s use of genre and language, the historical contexts, changing critical perspectives, and aspects of the plays in performance.Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £143.00 Concession £116.00 - Great works: Mendelssohn's OctetCourse start date: Tue 2 Dec 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Katy HamiltonStudy the history and form of this famous work in a short, enjoyable music history class.Full fee £29.00 Senior fee £29.00 Concession £29.00 - Great musicians: Berio and BerberianCourse start date: Tue 2 Dec 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Trish ShawComposer Luciano Berio and singer-composer Cathy Berberian were the power couple of contemporary music in the 1950s and 1960s, collaborating to discover new sounds and musical techniques and structures in works from Tema: Omaggio a Joyce and Sequenza III to Stripsody.Full fee £59.00 Senior fee £59.00 Concession £59.00 - Great artists: David Munrow Course start date: Thu 11 Dec 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Edward BreenExplore the life and works of David Munrow, one of the key performers of early music in the 1960s and 1970s.Full fee £29.00 Senior fee £29.00 Concession £29.00 - Piano: the complete Mozart sonatas part two Course start date: Thu 26 Feb 2026
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Lewis KestertonJoin City Lit's flagship piano repertoire project for 2025-26, The Complete Mozart Piano Sonatas. During the course of the year, participants will explore and play all 18 sonatas, culminating in a collaborative, professional quality recording. This course is split into two fifteen-week parts across the academic year; you are welcome to come to one or both parts of the project (see further details about each part below).Full fee £499.00 Senior fee £499.00 Concession £349.00 - Pottery morning Course start date: Tue 16 Sep 2025 (and 2 other dates)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Amy Hughes, Alex SimpsonExperience and explore all the making techniques in ceramics: coiling, slab-building, press moulds and throwing on the wheel with tutor guidance and demonstration. Also covering surface decoration techniques and basic glazing.Full fee £619.00 Senior fee £495.00 Concession £402.00 - 'Foreign films': European cinema from the fifties Course start date: Mon 28 Apr 2025 (and 1 other date)
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: John WischmeyerThey were called ‘foreign films’ in the fifties, the first films to emerge from Europe and further to a wider British and American audience: Bicycle Thieves (1948 Vittorio De Sica) Rashomon (1950 Akira Kurosawa), Pather Panchali (1955 Satyajit Ray), Seven Samurai (1954 Akira Kurosawa), The Seventh Seal (1957 Ingmar Bergman), Plein Soleil (1960 Rene Clement). They played at The Academy Oxford Street or The Everyman Hampstead. Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you discover a whole world of amazing films. Too many filmgoers are scared off by the notion of international cinema. In cultural shorthand, ‘foreign film’ was a euphemism for snootiness, a stereotype that kept audiences from experiencing some of the greatest movies ever made. Once you open yourself up to them you’ll find there’s nothing to be intimidated by.Full fee £259.00 Senior fee £207.00 Concession £168.00 - Music in the 21st century: the first 25 years Course start date: Tue 29 Apr 2025
Location on this date: Keeley Street
Tutors: Edward HendersonWe are now 25 years into the 21st century. This course is a guide to concert music and new composition of the century so far.Full fee £99.00 Senior fee £99.00 Concession £99.00
Can't see a course you want?
Add this category to your waiting list to set up alerts and we will update you when new courses are released online.
Add me to waiting list