Our Monthly Meetings are the main regular event for all NLU3A members.
The meetings start with an informal gathering over tea and coffee, served from 10.00 am. The main part of the meeting – an illustrated talk by an expert in their area – starts at 10:30 and finishes around noon.
NLU3A Monthly Meetings usually take place on the second Monday of the month and are held at St Margaret’s United Reformed Church, Victoria Avenue, London N3 1BD. View map. The venue is a short walk from Finchley Central tube station, or it can be reached by buses 13, 125, 143, 326 and 460 from Hendon Lane or Regent’s Park Road.
To help manage numbers, please email meetings@nlu3a.org.uk if you are planning to attend, if possible by the Friday before the meeting.
Non-members are welcome to attend one Monthly Meeting to find out more about NLU3A. However, anyone wishing to attend more than one Monthly Meeting is required to join NLU3A.
Forthcoming events
Mon 12 Jan 2026
10:00am - 12:00pm
Venice is eternally fascinating. But how did a desperate refugee shanty town built on a swamp turn into the massive trading empire whose billions nourished the creativity of Titian and […]
Venue: St Margaret’s United Reformed Church, N3 1BD
Booking Required
Mon 9 Feb 2026
10:00am - 12:00pm
Speaker: Angela Cox Topic: TBC Further details to follow.
Venue: St Margaret’s United Reformed Church, N3 1BD
Booking Required
Silk roads: The transfer of goods, knowledge, genes and disease
Mon 9 Mar 2026
10:00am - 12:00pm
The Silk Roads have always been a vital route of trade and exchange – not only of goods, but also of knowledge, genes and diseases. In this talk, we will […]
Venue: St Margaret’s United Reformed Church, N3 1BD
Booking Required
Mon 13 Apr 2026
10:00am - 12:00pm
Speaker: Paul Barwick Topic: Operation Zig Zag Further details to follow.
Venue: St Margaret’s United Reformed Church, N3 1BD
Booking Required
Previous events
Hendon and the history of aviation
Mon 10 Nov 2025
10:00am - 12:00pm
Hendon has long-standing links with aviation, from the days of aviation pioneer Claude Grahame-White, through the Hendon air shows of the 1920s and 1930s, to RAF Hendon’s role in both […]
Venue: St Margaret’s United Reformed Church, N3 1BD
Gilbert and Sullivan in the 21st century
Mon 13 Oct 2025
10:00am - 12:00pm
Why are the works of works of two Victorians, WS Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, still so popular? In this talk, speaker Bernard Lockett reviews the world-wide popularity of Gilbert and […]
Venue: St Margaret’s United Reformed Church, N3 1BD
From fields to focaccia: the changing face of Kentish Town
Mon 8 Sep 2025
10:00am - 12:00pm
As a poor cousin to neighbouring Hampstead and Highgate, Kentish Town is under-appreciated, and suffers from a widespread myth that here there is little of value here. In this talk, London […]
Venue: St Margaret’s United Reformed Church, N3 1BD
Behind the scenes at the Supreme Court
Mon 14 Jul 2025
10:00am - 12:00pm
As the final court of appeal for the UK, the Supreme Court plays a vital role in UK life, making legal decisions on everything from commercial, employment and public law, to […]
Venue: St Margaret’s United Reformed Church, N3 1BD
Mon 9 Jun 2025
10:00am - 12:00pm
In this illustrated talk, professional plantswoman Caroline Broome takes a look at some of England's finest gardens to see how their grand designs can be adapted to suit our own smaller […]
Venue: St Margaret’s United Reformed Church, N3 1BD
Mon 12 May 2025
10:00am - 12:00pm
Harrods has been in the headlines recently for unfortunate reasons. However, as Londoners, many of us will have personally enjoyed visiting and perhaps shopping in this magnificent and historic department […]
Venue: St Margaret’s United Reformed Church, N3 1BD
UK democracy: Reforming the House of Lords
Mon 14 Apr 2025
10:00am - 12:00pm
There is general agreement that reform of the House of Lords is urgently needed – but little consensus on what the reforms should be, or even on the Lords’ purpose. […]
Venue: St Margaret’s United Reformed Church, N3 1BD
Hard times: Social realism in British art
Mon 10 Mar 2025
10:00am - 12:00pm
In the 1840s and 1850s, a period of economic slump, poverty and famine, painters began drawing attention to the conditions of working-class life in Britain. By the 1870s and 1880s, […]
Venue: St Margaret’s United Reformed Church, N3 1BD
Mon 10 Feb 2025
10:00am - 12:00pm
Using a helicopter from 08:00 to sunset, and rapid response cars at night or in adverse weather situations, London’s Air Ambulance is the charity that brings the hospital to the […]
Venue: St Margaret’s United Reformed Church, N3 1BD
Mon 13 Jan 2025
10:00am - 12:00pm
On 20 January 2025, Donald J Trump will be inaugurated as President of the United States for the second time. Dire predictions have been coming fast and furious since his […]
Venue: St Margaret’s United Reformed Church, N3 1BD
Credit: Simon Inglis/Historic England
Mon 11 Nov 2024
10:00am - 12:00pm
Sports and games have always been played in London. For the Tudors, it was tennis at Hampton Court and jousting at Whitehall. The Victorians established a network of sports clubs across the […]
Venue: St Margaret’s United Reformed Church, N3 1BD
Credit: Forest51690CWikimedia Commons
George Gershwin: Music in the heart of noise
Mon 14 Oct 2024
10:00am - 12:00pm
February 2024 marked the centenary of Rhapsody in Blue, the work that earned George Gershwin (1898–1937) the title of ‘the man who made an honest woman out of jazz’. In […]
Venue: St Margaret’s United Reformed Church, N3 1BD
© Museum of Domestic Design & Architecture, Middlesex University
From flocks to florals: An illustrated history of wallpaper
Mon 9 Sep 2024
10:00am - 12:00pm
Often dismissed as ephemera, wallpaper is in fact a crucial contributor to the history of design. The growth of the wallpaper industry encompasses fashion, taste, society, technology – and the […]
Venue: St Margaret’s United Reformed Church, N3 1BD