The Peaceful Crystallographer

6.30pm – 8.30pm 15th October 2026

Bloomsbury Festival 2026
CONWAY HALL
25 Red Lion Square, London, WC1R 4RL

Tickets from £8 – £22 Details and Booking Here

The Peaceful Crystallographer – and other Songs

Join us at Conway Hall for a special Bloomsbury Festival singing celebration of Dame Kathleen Lonsdale (1903–1971) – the first female professor at UCL and the first female Fellow of the Royal Society. Defying all odds, her pioneering science led to breakthroughs in organic chemistry and medical treatments. Beyond science, Lonsdale was a prison reformer, women’s rights activist and pacifist, warning of the dangers of nuclear physics and wealth inequality in her book Is Peace Possible?

Electric Voice Theatre is joined by singers from UC8 and the Clerkenwell Community Choir, to perform music which reflects Lonsdale’s eclectic life. Ranging through Irish folk song, music-hall, stirring anthems and ethical hymns the performance features works by Judith Weir and Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Lonsdale’s contemporaries like Elizabeth Maconchy, Shena Fraser and Clara Novello Davies and Conway Hall’s radical thinkers, Eliza Flower and Josephine Troup.

Following the performance, we will examine her history with historian Dr Patricia Fara, the musical connections with the featured composers and meet some of today’s women in science at UCL in the year of its 200th anniversary.  

 Click here to go back to the EVENTS calendar
Why not sign up to our newsletter for updates on our plans for 2023