From October 2019 formal adult education classes will return to West Norwood after a gap of almost thirty years, courtesy of Imperial College London.

Working in partnership with the South London Botanical Institute, the Centre for Languages, Culture and Communication at Imperial will be offering three daytime and evening classes aimed at adult learners in and around West Norwood. These will be on botanical painting and drawing, creative writing and the history of the Hollywood musical. The courses will be taught at the SLBI’s premises in Tulse Hill and at the West Norwood Library and Picturehouse.

Although small in number, the aim of the initial courses is to sow the seeds for more classes to run in the future. It is hoped West Norwood will become a new additional hub for Imperial’s successful evening class programme, which is currently centred on South Kensington.

West Norwood has a long history as a centre for adult education, with the Lower Norwood Working Men's Institute, later known as the Norwood Technical College, opening in 1859. This was founded by Arthur Anderson, co-founder of the shipping company P&O, who lived in Beulah Hill and was buried in West Norwood Cemetery after his death in 1868. In the 1970s Anderson’s college was taken over by the forerunner to Lambeth College, before the site was closed in the 1990s.

More information on the new daytime and evening class courses in West Norwood can be found at www.imperial.ac.uk/clcc.