The Peaceful Crystallographer - and Other Songs

Join Electric Voice Theatre at Conway Hall for a singing celebration of Kathleen Lonsdale – the first female professor at UCL and one of the first female Royal Society Fellows. 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?

The music, performed by Electric Voice Theatre, UC8 and the Clerkenwell Community Choir, 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 and meet some of today’s women in science at UCL in the year of its 200th anniversary.

This event is part of Bloomsbury Festival 2026.

Location

Conway Hall 25 Red Lion Square, WC1R 4RL [email protected] 

Times 

Thursday, 15 October 2026 18:30 – 20:15