Heritage walks and days out
The following are suggestions for days out to learn more about the lives of humanists and secularists. They can be taken throughout the year – the events section lists one-off activities.
Walking tours
The Bentham Project has produced a leaflet which includes a map and full description of a walk through areas of London relating to Jeremy Bentham‘s life.
The BBC have produced a guide around George Eliot Country to see the sites in Nuneaton associated with the great author. All the sites are free and are within walking distance of one another, to make visiting really easy. View the itinerary online here or view the route on Google maps here.
A walking tour of Thetford relating to the life of Thomas Paine. From humble beginnings, he became the most widely read and influential pamphleteer of his day.
Places of interest
It was at Down House in Kent that Charles Darwin worked on his scientific theories, and wrote ‘On the Origin of Species’ by Means of Natural Selection. The house remains much as it was when Darwin lived here and attractions include an interactive exhibition, restored gardens with observation beehive, Sandwalk (the path Darwin paced as he worked out his ideas) and an audio tour, narrated by Sir David Attenborough.
This was the London home of Sigmund Freud and his family until 1982. The centrepiece of the museum is Freud’s library and study, preserved just as it was during his lifetime.
Novelist and poet Thomas Hardy was born here and lived here until the age of 34. The property is owned by the National Trust.
Around 1,400 portraits are on display at this London gallery throughout the year, a number of whom are part of Humanist heritage.
Nuneaton Museum and Art Gallery
Contains a reconstruction of novelist George Eliot’s London drawing room of 1870 and many of her personal items as well as local history exhibitions.
