Highgate Literary and Scientific Institution

Today its charitable purpose, from its historic building, is to offer opportunities for life-long learning through its courses, library, archives, art gallery, lectures, debates, cultural and social events.

The spirit of enquiry generated by the new scientific inventions and their development in manufacturing processes led to the formation, originally in the big industrial cities of the north, of societies where members could attend lectures and have access to libraries.

[3] The Independent Libraries Association was formed in 1989 by the few remaining UK Institutions still active, including the HLSI, for the exchange of information on questions of mutual interest.

On 16 January 1839 he called a meeting at the Gate House Tavern in Highgate Village[6] for the purpose of forming an institution designed to excite and cultivate an intelligent interest in the objects of Literature and Science.

Seventy-six local residents put down their names to become members[7] and at a second meeting two weeks later, on 31 January, the Highgate Literary & Scientific Institution was formed when rules and a constitution were proposed.

The basement of the HLSI incorporates vaulted cellars typically found in pubs, and it has been speculated that this was the site of the Swan, Highgate's first alehouse dating from the fifteenth century.

[9] On the ground occupied by two of the cottages Church House (10 South Grove) was built in 1752 by Peter Storer, brother-in-law of Sir John Hawkins,[10] the friend and biographer of Dr Samuel Johnson.

[14] Courses have developed into an increasingly important activity, in response to greater demand from local retired people, as more studies highlight the health benefits of lifetime learning.

The Library has approximately 25,000 books, ranging from crime fiction to history, reflecting current members’ interests and those of earlier librarians: for example, at various times the Bloomsbury Group, gardening, embroidery, Imperial Russia and women travellers of the 19th century have clearly been much in demand.

The early Victorian collection matched the lecture subjects chosen by the members, so was much stronger in the burgeoning fields of science and engineering, but now fiction, biography and history predominate.

It houses the HLSI's own archive of its activities dating back to its foundation in 1839, as well as material relating to several well-known local residents, including Mary Kingsley, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and John Betjeman, as well as several special collections acquired or given to it over many years.

Past lecturers have included (in alphabetical order): Joan Bakewell, Michael Berkeley, Walter Besant, John Betjeman, Anthony Blunt, Ronald Blythe, Thomas Brimelow, Sophie Bryant, AS Byatt, Hugh Casson, William Dalrymple, Charles Dickens Jr., Margaret Drabble, Lord Dufferin, Millicent Garrett Fawcett, Roger Fenton, Michael Foot, Antonia Fraser, Michael Frayn, Lord Justice Fry, Timothy Garton Ash, Misha Glenny, Jane Glover, Edmund Gosse, Andrew Graham Dixon, George Grossmith, Simon Hoggart, Richard Holmes, Michael Holroyd, Tristram Hunt, Simon Jenkins, Paul Johnson, Steve Jones, Jim Al-Khalili, Mary Kingsley, Hermione Lee, David Lodge, Richard Mabey, Hilary Mantel, Henry Marsh, Eleanor Marx, Jolyon Maugham, Jonathan Miller, Frank Muir, James Murray, Julia Neuberger, Paul Nurse, Michael Palin, Flinders Petrie, Lady Plowden, Jonathon Porritt, Roy Porter, Michael Rosen, Mark Rylance, Marcus du Sautoy, Quentin Skinner, David Starkey, Sergius Stepniak, Edward Stourton, John Summerson, AJP Taylor, Colin Thubron, Claire Tomalin, Arthur Waley, Fergus Walsh, Marina Warner, Sydney Waterlow, Huw Weldon, Mortimer Wheeler and Lewis Wolpert.

[21] Other activities in the building include a science group, an opera circle, a film society, craft fairs, concerts, meetings, debates, quizzes and exhibitions.