The London Consortium was a collaborative program composed of Birkbeck, the Architectural Association, Institute of Contemporary Arts, the Science Museum and the Tate Gallery.

As of 2013, The London Consortium exists solely as a legacy partnership between the constituent institutions for the benefit of the remaining PhD students until the completion of their dissertations.

The Consortium was founded in 1993 by the late social philosopher Paul Hirst (1947-2003), Mark Cousins, Richard Humphreys, and Colin MacCabe.

In 2007, the Science Museum joined the collaboration, with its Head of Research, Peter Morris, contributing as a core faculty member.

Where interdisciplinary studies had often been content to merely ignore the traditional academic disciplines, and run roughshod over disciplinary boundaries, the London Consortium preferred to describe its activities as multidisciplinary, reflecting the belief that while the best research benefited from being approached from two or more disciplinary perspectives, it must also stand up to the most exacting standards of the disciplines.