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A History of London: 1066 - 1666 (Plus Gallery Talks)
Year course
+44 (0)20 7942 2000
Your bespoke learning experience:
For more details, see V&A Academy online questions · V&A
Being up close with treasured objects from the V&A's collections brings your learning to life. Get precious time with our expert tutors and your fellow learners.
Choose between three ticket types: Course, Course plus Gallery Talks or Online Stream!
Love the sound of this course? Look out for the next instalment London 1666-1851: Emporia and Empire coming up in January 2026.
Step back into the crowded lanes and sprawling spires of medieval London, and discover the history behind one of Europe’s great cities, with exclusive access to V&A treasures and experts…
On this course, you'll venture into the V&A’s collections and beyond to discover a medieval London of great learning and skilled crafts, made rich on trade and plunder but besieged by plague, civil war and ultimately, fire. Join leading experts in one of London’s major museums to indulge in a little time travel, and immerse yourself in the city’s rich history, from the Norman Conquest to the Great Fire.
On this course, you'll venture into the V&A’s collections and beyond to discover a medieval London of great learning and skilled crafts, made rich on trade and plunder but besieged by plague, civil war and ultimately, fire. Join leading experts in one of London’s major museums to indulge in a little time travel, and immerse yourself in the city’s rich history, from the Norman Conquest to the Great Fire.
This ticket also includes access to your exclusive expert-led gallery tours, where you’ll come face-to-face with London’s history through close study of those objects whose survival bears witness to the fascinating personal, social and political histories of the medieval capital...
...Want to know more? Take a look at the course programme for the full schedule, or book now to start your journey of discovery.
...Want to know more? Take a look at the course programme for the full schedule, or book now to start your journey of discovery.
Your bespoke learning experience:
- Exclusive gallery access: Study unique artefacts from the V&A’s collection in situ with leading experts.
- Ask the experts: Pose your questions directly to V&A experts and subject specialists in our Q&As.
- Behind-the-scenes learning: Access industry insights and learn about how collections are researched, conserved, and interpreted.
- Community of learners: Engage with fellow enthusiasts in a supportive, discussion-rich environment.
- Miss a week? No stress: Access recordings of all your lectures as well as study materials through your secure Microsoft Teams online course environment.
For more details, see V&A Academy online questions · V&A
V&A Academy Course Director
Mike Berlin
Mike Berlin is a Lecturer at Birkbeck College, University of London. He is a specialist in the social history of early modern London and has published extensively on the history of London’s guilds. Before joining Birkbeck, he was a research officer at the Centre for Metropolitan History, Institute of Historical Research.
This was a fantastic course, one of the best I have done and I do a lot of them! Friendly, expert-led, and hugely enjoyable. Previous V&A Academy Course Attendee
V&A Academy. A learning environment you can trust.
Being up close with treasured objects from the V&A's collections brings your learning to life. Get precious time with our expert tutors and your fellow learners.
Choose between three ticket types: Course, Course plus Gallery Talks or Online Stream!
Course overview
Medieval London was a walled city of crowded streets and lanes, open air markets and half-timbered and stone houses, its inhabitants living perilously and piously amid a skyline of a hundred church spires. With the V&A’s collections and curators for inspiration, on this ten-week course we will explore its dynamic and fascinating history from the Norman Conquest to the Great Fire. A city of learning and richly skilled crafts, during this period London went from being the prosperous capital of an emerging kingdom on the periphery of Christendom to being one of the greatest cities of Europe, the centre of a growing mercantile empire which looked outward to the Atlantic and beyond. London’s fame was built on the riches brought through trade and plunder, celebrated in plays and verse. Londoners surrounded themselves with the finery from the four corners of the world. Yet civil war, plague and fire forced a new city into being.
Love the sound of this course? Look out for the next instalment London 1666-1851: Emporia and Empire coming up in January 2026.
Enrol now
Year course: A History of London: 1066 - 1666 (Plus Gallery Talks)
24 September 2025 - 26 November 2025
£645.00
Call to book +44 (0)20 7942 2000
Need help enrolling? Talk to the admissions team:
+44 (0)20 7942 2000
Open 10.00 - 13.00, Monday to Sunday (closed 24-26 December)
Related events
Header image: Printed map of London entitled 'Londinum Feracissimi Angliae Regni Metropolis'. Published in Civitates Orbis Terrarum, a German atlas of European cities edited by Georg Braun (1541-1622) with engravings by Frans Hogenberg (1535-1590), Cologne 1572.