City Lit first opened their doors for enrolments in September 1919 and in their first century have supported well over a million adults in London to learn. 

One of the first courses we offered in 1919 was lipreading for soldiers whose hearing had been damaged badly by shell fire in the First World War. One hundred years later we now have more than a thousand tutors teaching five thousand courses every year from languages to visual arts, humanities to business, and music to wellbeing.

It’s important to us to make sure that the diversity of London and the diversity of Londoner’s interests are reflected in the courses we have on offer so we’re constantly changing the curriculum to make sure that it stays relevant and interesting. As well as bringing more than 30,000 learners into City Lit each year, we also reach out and work with communities around London.

Many of our learners come here to be a part of something. Their learning is cumulative and collective, and our tutors are not only experts in their fields, but they understand how adults learn. They create environments in their classes where people will learn from each other as well as the tutor. The democratisation of knowledge, sharing, learning from peers is something that is quite special and is at the core of why we remain relevant and why people keep on coming back to City Lit to learn again and again.