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Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society

Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society, the ‘Lit & Phil’, holds fortnightly lectures at 7.30pm on Monday evenings from September/October to April. These normally take place in the main “Victorian” gallery of the Leicester Museum & Art Gallery and are also streamed online using Zoom. The lectures cover a broad range of topics in the arts, literature, natural history, philosophy and the sciences. When the Society was formed, “natural philosophy” included astronomy, medicine and the sciences generally. The Society provides a forum in which members can listen, reflect, ask questions and chat informally with the speaker and other members of the audience afterwards over refreshments.

The Lit and Phil was founded in 1835 to provide opportunities for local people to hear lectures from speakers who are experts in their fields. A brief history of the Society can be found here. The Society was influential in establishing New Walk Museum (now Leicester Museum & Art Gallery) in 1849, the Public Library in the 1860s and Leicester University College (now the University of Leicester) in 1920. Today its links with local universities and Leicester Museum & Art Gallery remain strong and it is a registered educational charity.