Royal Geographical Society

There is always something interesting going on at the Royal Geographic Society. Most of their exhibitions also tend to be absolutely free.
The current «Travel Photographer of the Year» will be on until early September.
The other advantage is that their exhibitions are normally open until 7pm at least on Fridays and Saturdays, so you can nip in for a bit after being thrown out of the Science/​Natural History/​V&A museums around 6.
There’s a tiny café on the premises which serves up some basic stuff.
They often host some interesting travel related lectures — sign up to their newsletter to stay informed.

Joining the RGS in Hong Kong is one of the best things I’ve ever done. And to visit the mother ship & have lunch in the tea room. How cool is that?

I’m always amazed at how little — or even large — theatres and exhibition spaces blend in with surrounding residential buildings. The Royal Geographical Society is no exception. I visited to attend the exclusion UK screening of Gardeners of Eden (a documentary about Kenya’s David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust).
The theatre is small and intimate and the seats are comfortable with plenty of legroom. Overall, I was fairly comfortable for the two hours I sat there, however, I would recommend that the purpose of your visit is for a screening, that you sit in the balcony area. I sat on the ground floor and the screen is quite high, so my neck was reasonably sore after about an hour of staring at the screen above. The balcony is at about the same height as the screen which would likely give a much more comfortable viewing experience.
Side note: Seating is not assigned. Its first come, first serve.

A fascinating place to learn and to inspire — you always come away with ideas as to your next adventure.
Very friendly and down-​to-​earth staff.
I’ve been a member here for a few years now, and always try to attend their monday night lectures (if you’re not a member, you’ll have to contact them beforehand), last nights was about crossing the Antarctic and now I’m looking up options to get to South Georgia.
Well worth a visit.

I was at the RGS to photograph a series of lectures about creativity and inspiration. My client has a thing for choosing interesting venues, and this is no exception.
The lecture theatre is warm and comfortable with a fairly decent AV set up. The staff during the lunch and coffee breaks were very attentive and the food was nice.
Not sure how much it costs to host an event here, but I’d definitely look into it in the future if I am ever looking to do one.
There is also a new exhibition starting from wildlife photographer, David Lloyd which I thoroughly recommend.

Stanfords book store and the RGS are running a series of adventurer-​author lectures in 2009. James Cracknell discussing his race to the South Pole with Ben Fogle was fascinating, and plenty more to come.
Even without the lectures, the RGS usually hosts a rotating photography exhibition free to the public, and it makes for a great place to escape the crowds at Exhibition Roads superstar musea.

A lovely old traditional building that has good lectures from time to time. Came here to see the skier Chris Davenport talk about his project of skiing the 14ers project in Colorado, which totally blew me away. He’s such an amazing guy and so great that he came to speak here. A different way to spend an evening other than drinking! Right next to the Royal Albert Hall.