What we do and how to join
The London Girton Association (LGA) arranges regular events for its members which are publicised in our termly Newsletter.
Anyone who is an alumnus of Girton College can join and we always welcome new members. You do not have to live or work in London, although bear in mind that most events are held in the London area.
Membership is £20 pa but if you’re not in paid employment it is £10 pa. The association is run by volunteers so after meeting administrative and events costs, any surplus funds are used to benefit Girton, often current students. For instance, the LGA currently supports an annual music award for a Girton student.
If you would like to join please download an application form and send it to the membership secretary at lga@girton.cam.ac.uk.
Forthcoming and Recent Events
Further information about these events can be found in the LGA’s Newsletter or by contacting the Association at lga@girton.cam.ac.uk.
2026
Thursday 22 October, Visit to Florence Nightingale Museum
2.30pm
We have all heard of Florence Nightingale and her pioneering work to make nursing a profession but did you also know that Florence Nightingale was the first female member of the Royal Statistical Society? That she owned over 60 cats throughout her life and had a pet owl called Athena? Do you know why she was called Florence?
Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, was one of our greatest Victorians and a female icon in her own lifetime. She is still an inspiration to nurses around the globe.
Visit the museum to celebrate the life of this trailblazing woman; discover all about her affluent childhood, how she fought against her parents’ wishes to become a nurse, her work during the Crimean War and how she campaigned for better healthcare for ordinary people. See the actual lamp she carried which earned her the nickname The Lady With The Lamp, meet her pet owl and see her medicine chest.
Florence Nightingale helped to set up the Nightingale Training School at St Thomas’s Hospital in 1860. During her time as Matron of St Thomas’s, Dame Alicia Lloyd Still started to collect objects that had belonged to Nightingale or that Nightingale had gifted to some of the nurses who had trained at the Nightingale Training School.
The objects that Lloyd Still collected were held at the Nightingale Training School and came to be known as the ‘Nightingalia’. The objects were used by the probationer nurses as a teaching tool. Later on they were used for a number of exhibitions that marked different anniversaries, such as the centenary of the Crimean War in 1954, the celebrations marking the centenary of the Nightingale Training School in 1960 and the 150th anniversary of Nightingale’s birth in 1970.
The collection transferred to the newly created Florence Nightingale Museum Trust in 1983, who then opened the museum on the site of the Training School in 1989.
Cost: £17
Booking: To book a place please email: lga@girton.cam.ac.uk for further details including how payment may be made.
Monday 16 November, LGA AGM
5.00pm
Please join us for our 2026 AGM which will be in person. AGM papers will be sent to attendees including the Chair’s report, accounts and the general work of the Committee.
All members are welcome.
Please email lga@girton.cam.ac.uk to advise the committee of your attendance.
Recent Events:
- Visits to Somerset House and the Royal Albert Hall. These visits to two historic venues treated guests to private guided tours that revealed fascinating and sometimes surprising stories from each location's past.
- A large group of LGA members gathered there for a private guided tour of Pitzhanger Manor in Ealing. It was designed, built and lived in by neoclassical architect, Sir John Soane. Soane used the house to showcase the colour and drama of his designs for his clients - many of whom were cleverly seen in the settings made by the archivist on the dining room table. The contemporary art gallery attached to the Manor house was showing an exhibition of Howard Hodgkins’ work, which we were also able to view. After our tour, Mary Sergeant gave us a splendid cream tea at her house for which we thank her very warmly.
- A visit to the Royal Society of Musicians in Fitzroy Square. It was fascinating to see a large number of blue plaques celebrating various residents- George Bernard Shaw and Virginia Woolf among them. Colin Coleman, the archivist, gave us a fascinating talk illustrated by materials in the RSM’s collection. We sat at a large table overseen by portraits of Handel and Corelli. The Society was founded in 1738 as the “fund for decayed musicians”. Handel was very involved from the start and took part in the annual concerts for the fund’s benefit and King George III gave his patronage.
- A private tour of little-known Boston Manor House in Brentford. This Grade 1 Jacobean manor house was built in 1623 and boasts wonderful ornate plaster ceilings. We had the house to ourselves and thoroughly enjoyed the tour led by an enthusiastic and knowledgeable guide.
- A private tour of the fascinating new Lambeth Palace Library that was completed in 2020 and designed by Wright and Wright.
- A marvellous tour Charles Dickens Museum in Doughty Street. This is the only extant house lived in by the author and we enjoyed a fascinating private tour, seeing many of Dickens’ personal possessions, including the desk where he wrote Nicholas Nickleby and Oliver Twist.
Join the Committee
Have you ever considered becoming more involved in the LGA? Why not join our friendly committee! You would be made very welcome and it is not an onerous commitment: we usually organise between us one or two events per Spring, Summer and Autumn season. If you are interested, just email lga@girton.cam.ac.uk.
Book Circle
The LGA Book Circle continues to thrive, with 16 members and more than 100 books read to date, a mixture of fiction and non-fiction. We meet on Zoom about every three weeks or so and read both fiction and non-fiction. Our most recent read was With the Law on Our Side, by alumna Lady Hale, and we are currently reading My Friends by Frederik Bakman Members are welcome to join – just email lga@girton.cam.ac.uk.