Inspired by nature
Escape the screens and reconnect with nature. Immerse yourself in the beauty of your environment through our off-site, art, or writing courses. City Lit offers you the chance to let nature's serenity calm your mind, reduce stress, and restore your creative spirit by using the beauty of your surroundings as inspiration. What will you create? Book your place now to be inspired by nature.
14 courses available
Find your way without a map: Orienting from natural signsSee nature in a whole new way by learning some basic, practical tips for navigating via natural clues and signs. You’ll never be lost without your phone again! Please note that this is a one-off, offsite session. Meeting point: Greenwich Park.
Off Site
Sat 3 Oct 2026Christopher CollierFull fee £39.00 Senior fee £31.00 Concession £25.00- Painting from plants and flowersExplore a variety of creative approaches for painting flowers from observation. Discover the rich history of this genre while taking inspiration from artists who use flowers as their subject matter.Full fee £349.00 Senior fee £279.00 Concession £227.00
- Winter Wildlife Walks: Rainham Marshes & Walthamstow WetlandsJoin us to explore two of London’s most rewarding locations for observing wildlife in the winter months, Rainham Marshes and Walthamstow Wetlands. Learn to identify bird and mammal species at this time of year.
Keeley Street
Sat 14 Nov 2026Ben ChappleFull fee £149.00 Senior fee £119.00 Concession £97.00 - Design your own gardenExplore the principles of planting design using form, line and texture to create dynamic planting schemes. In weekly workshops, improve the breadth of your plant knowledge whilst developing the skills and techniques of garden designers.
Keeley Street
Wed 20 Jan 2027Alison WorsterFull fee £319.00 Senior fee £255.00 Concession £207.00 - Understanding contemporary art: experiencing environments
This course will look at contemporary art that invites audiences to touch, see, taste, smell, and hear in order to experience the environment and the tangible effects of climate change. We will explore sensory experience in the environment through the lens of installation art, performance art, participatory art, site-specific art, socially engaged art, and landscape architecture in the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Online
Wed 3 Feb 2027Xinrui ZhangFull fee £129.00 Senior fee £129.00 Concession £84.00 - London photography walk: River Thames
Explore and discover London through these photography walks, moving through locations rich in photographic potential.
The walks centre around photographing views along the River Thames, from the Aldwych area eastwards to the City, from London Bridge to the Southbank and from Westminster to the newly developed Nine Elms area. Bring your own camera and comfortable walking shoes as you capture places, spaces, objects and people.Full fee £159.00 Senior fee £127.00 Concession £103.00 - Garden design for beginnersExplore the principles of planting design using form, line and texture to create dynamic planting schemes. In weekly workshops, improve the breadth of your plant knowledge whilst developing the skills and techniques of garden designers.
Keeley Street
Tue 4 May 2027Alison WorsterFull fee £319.00 Senior fee £255.00 Concession £207.00 - Writing eco-fiction
Are you a writer who's passionate about the environment? This one-day course will teach you how to weave environmental themes and positive climate solutions into your work, while writing entertaining, high-quality fiction.
Online
Sat 5 Jun 2027Laura BaggaleyFull fee £79.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £51.00 - Foraging for Folklore: Common Urban Plants and their Stories
Discover the stories and folklore of some common urban plants. Explore how these botanical neighbours have been revered as healers, feared as poisons, or woven into local myths and superstitions. This session will take place offsite.Meeting point:Hampstead Heath overground (Mildmay Line).
Off Site
Sun 6 Jun 2027Christopher CollierFull fee £39.00 Senior fee £31.00 Concession £25.00 - Art and critical theory: rethinking 'nature'Explore the role of critical theory within the field of art history, and learn new ways of thinking about art by focusing on how recent authors have been rethinking our understanding of nature.
Online
Wed 9 Jun 2027Irina ChkhaidzeFull fee £139.00 Senior fee £139.00 Concession £90.00 - Friday Lates: Art beyond the human - spirits, ecologies, and A.I.
To some, art is central to what makes us human, but artists have long engaged more-than-human agencies-spiritual, ecological, now digital. Surrealism appropriated spiritualist and indigenous traditions; Land Art made ecosystems co-authors. Today, as some talk of an ‘Anthropocene’, many artists turn their attention elsewhere. Did ancient hominids make art? Can birds, or even fish? And what about AI? Decentering the Human reshapes what art is-but are we ready?
Online
Fri 11 Jun 2027Christopher CollierFull fee £29.00 Senior fee £29.00 Concession £19.00 - Writing eco-poetryHow might poets write about the natural world today, and what is an eco-poem?
Keeley Street
Sat 19 Jun 2027Sarah WestcottFull fee £79.00 Senior fee £79.00 Concession £51.00 - Design your own garden intensiveTransform your garden and explore design and plant selection techniques tailored to your space. Discover how to improve your garden with professional, practical garden design solutions and tips to maximise the potential of your site.
Keeley Street
Mon 19 Jul 2027Alison WorsterFull fee £279.00 Senior fee £223.00 Concession £181.00 - Poetry and nature workshop at Keats House, HampsteadA two-day writing workshop on poetry and nature, set in the former residence of the Romantic poet, John Keats, as well as nearby Hampstead Heath.
Off Site
Sat 24 Jul 2027Eleanor PennyFull fee £169.00 Senior fee £169.00 Concession £169.00
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.