This year, City Lit enters its second century – an important milestone for any organisation. We were originally one of five literary institutes to open in London and we are the only one to have survived and prospered.

Since we opened in 1919, we have welcomed tens of thousands of Londoners every year, with probably well over a million people having benefitted from our unique offering over the last century.

We are based near Covent Garden in the heart of our city, where Londoners from all walks of life come together to try something new, learn a new skill, follow a passion, and find a community and their cultural expression.

We are open and welcoming as we have always been – throughout the most challenging times of the last century. The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said “London is Open” – I am proud to say that City Lit has had a century of unbroken support for Londoners.

Looking back

Our centenary affords us the opportunity of looking back and celebrating moments from our history, but as a leading cultural institution and beacon of learning in London, we are always keen to look forward and ensure we are ready for the future. 

Among the very first courses we offered when we opened in 1919 were lipreading classes for Londoners returning with damaged hearing from the battlefields of the First World War.

A century later our Centre for Deaf Education is campaigning for action to improve the awareness of how lipreading can transform lives and increase the availability of lipreading. Hearing loss can lead to a dramatic loss of independence, confidence and quality of life.

Lipreading is proven to successfully limit the impact of acquired hearing loss, helping people lead healthier, more productive lives. As more of us live longer this is a hidden crisis which we need to address. Currently, 11 million people in the UK suffer from hearing loss. By 2031, 1 in 5 of us will experience hearing loss. That’s 14 million of us at risk.

Everyone who seeks help for their hearing loss should receive advice on lipreading. Unfortunately, there are too few classes and access is a postcode lottery. Our goal is to train more teachers to teach more classes nationwide.

This is why we launched our #HearMyLips lipreading campaign in Parliament in November last year. We received support from across the political spectrum, interested sector organisations and individuals involved in this work for many years, as well as from the patron of our campaign, Turner Prize-winning artist and City Lit fellow Grayson Perry.

We are living and working longer, so the place of learning throughout your life is more important than ever. It doesn’t matter which of life’s transitions you are going through; fulltime education to the world of work; changing careers; personal circumstances; or moving from work to an active retirement; education is a crucial enabler to ensuring success in those transitions. 

We all need to continue to develop our passions and learn new skills to thrive throughout our lives – so City Lit is more relevant and essential to London’s future than it’s ever been.

Mark Malcomson is the principal and chief executive at City Lit