Talks and lectures
Talks and Lectures in London: 69 events this week (27 Jul to 1 Aug)
Talks and lectures in London this week, all in person. Author events, science and history lectures, panels and debates, with the date and venue on every listing.
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The Tooting Tavern Book Club
The Durutti Column: In Conversation
See NEW Next Tuesday
Songwriting Circle - Acoustic Night
Community Night
Dynasty Handbag: Hell in a Handbag
Library Lecture 2026: Elizabeth Bennett -Dorothy Marshall and the Women of West Sussex
Library Lecture 2026: Lucy Wright - Folk is a Feminist issue!
Library Lecture 2026: Sue Allen - Merry neets, morris and more
Scrum Presents Acting + Q&A with Sophie Fiennes, Declan Donellan & Nick Ormerod
Poetry Night at The Oystercatcher
PINTS OF KNOWLEDGE: "WATCHING THE EARTH GO BY"
WANDSWORTH BOOK CLUB: Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico
Artistic Mathematics: Truth and Beauty
Community Choir
London Fortean Society talks
PINTS OF KNOWLEDGE: WATER: THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT
Orchard Bowls Club
Novella Book Club
Guided tours of Richmond Theatre
Exhibition Talk – Lucinda Dickens Hawksley on Anny Thackeray
Franklin, Print, and Polemical Politics: A Talk with Becca Palmer
Quiz Night Every Monday at The Red Setter
Quiz Night at The Goat
The Highgate Vampire (London Fortean Society)
The White Mouse, Nancy Wake (A truly remarkable Spy)
Gunnersbury Park Historic Tour: Love Parks Week
Workshop: porcelain paper clay with Victoria Burgher at Nunnery Gallery
Radically inclusive nightlife: First look and Q&A
Radically inclusive nightlife: First look and Q&A at Docklands Museum
Walking Tour: 700 Years of History in Bruce Castle Park
Tales at the Tavern
Bead Jewellery Design Workshop
Paddington rubber duck race
Bank of England July Architecture Walking Tour
Neoprene Genie: Dream Jump
Islington Health and History Walk: Gillespie Park
Mad Tom’s Rising
Harlots, Strumpets and Tarts, Oh My! Immersive Tour
Leyton Orient: Season Launch live
Fireworks on the Thames in Greenwich
Aftershock: The Seismic Impact of Dubstep Book Launch with Kode 9 & Lauren Martin
London has long been a city built on talking things through. Its museums, universities, libraries, bookshops, and learned societies run a steady programme of public lectures, author events, panels, and debates, and on most weeks the choice of talks in London is genuinely wide. You can spend an evening with a writer, a scientist, a historian, or an economist, often for the price of a paperback.
This guide brings together talks and lectures happening across the capital, all of them in person. Every listing shows its date and venue, so you can see what fits your week and where you would need to be, whether that is a grand hall, a bookshop back room, or a university lecture theatre open to the public.
The appeal of a London lecture is the breadth. One evening might offer a deep dive into a single painting, the next a frank conversation about climate, identity, or the news cycle, and the next an author reading from a book that has just landed. The format suits the curious as much as the expert, and many events leave room for questions from the floor.
Use the list below as a way into that world rather than the final word. It refreshes as venues add new dates, so a quiet week can turn into an evening of real ideas with very little effort, which is exactly what a city this dense with institutions ought to offer.
Venues to know
- Big Penny Social 3 events this week
- Cecil Sharp House 3 events this week
- The Bell 2 events this week
- The Tooting Tavern 1 event this week
- Riverside Studios 1 event this week
- The Oystercatcher 1 event this week
How we pick
OnlyHere tracks live listings from over a hundred London venues, councils, and programmers, refreshed nightly. Picks favour events with confirmed dates, real venues you can find on a map, and editorial notes written by us, not the promoter. Prices and dates come from the listing itself; we never guess.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I find talks and lectures in London?
London talks and lectures run at museums, universities, libraries, independent bookshops, and learned societies across the city, covering everything from science and history to literature, politics, and the arts. The page above gathers events tagged as talks happening this week, with the date and venue on each one so you can plan around your week.
Are London talks and lectures open to the public?
Many are. Plenty of museum talks, bookshop author events, and public lecture series welcome anyone who books a place, and some university lectures are open to the public too. A few events are members-only or aimed at students, so it is worth checking the description and any booking detail before you set out.
How much do talks and lectures in London cost?
It varies widely. Some library and museum talks and many bookshop events are free or low-cost, while flagship lectures and ticketed series at the larger institutions charge more, and the popular author events sell out ahead. Because every OnlyHere listing shows its price, you can see at a glance which talks are free and which need a ticket.
What kinds of talks and lectures are on in London?
The range is broad: author readings and literary events, science and technology lectures, history and art talks, current affairs panels and debates, and conversations tied to exhibitions and new books. Some are single evenings, others run as series across a term. The listing above shows what is on this week so you can pick by topic and date.
How many talks and lectures in london are listed right now?
There are 69 events listed on this page right now. It updates daily.