# The Royal Society of Arts

> This file is a plain-text rendition of a page on mytuur.com, generated from the same data as the HTML version.

Canonical page: https://mytuur.com/en/city/london/spot/the-royal-society-of-arts/

Content updated: 2026-06-22

The Royal Society of Arts, formally the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, began in Britain during the mid-eighteenth century. It began in a coffee house in London.

The society promotes social progress through creativity, innovation, arts, manufacturing, commerce, education, and practical reform. Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, and Karl Marx belonged to its wide fellowship.

Its work has influenced education, industry, environmental projects, and ideas about social change across British life. The RSA supports innovation.

The society’s Georgian headquarters combines historic architecture with modern design and provides space for exhibitions, talks, and community gatherings. An on-site coffee house recalls the organisation’s origins.

Its archives preserve rare papers and artefacts that document nearly three centuries of development. The RSA publishes a journal.

That journal examines arts, manufacturing, commerce, and social change, continuing a publishing tradition established during the nineteenth century. Its fellowship connects people across countries.

The society has also supported technological alternatives to child labour, recognised overlooked skills, and transformed urban green spaces for children. Its history includes successes and failures.

Today, the RSA’s recorded work brings together people, places, and the planet through creativity, collaboration, and practical solutions. The headquarters remains an architectural setting for its broad civic mission.

- City: [Greater London](https://mytuur.com/en/city/london/)

## Photos

- ![](https://mytuur-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/image_TheRoyalSocietyofArts_68c53c7ce7953b133753b442_0.jpg) — [Image: wikimedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:8_John_Adam_Street_\(geograph_5350323\).jpg)
- ![](https://mytuur-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/image_TheRoyalSocietyofArts_68c53c7ce7953b133753b442_1.jpg) — [Image: wikimedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Society_of_Arts,_John_Street,_Adelphi.jpg)
- ![](https://mytuur-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/image_TheRoyalSocietyofArts_68c53c7ce7953b133753b442_2.jpg) — [Image: wikimedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:London_-_The_Royal_Society_of_Arts.jpg)
- ![](https://mytuur-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/image_TheRoyalSocietyofArts_68c53c7ce7953b133753b442_3.jpg) — [Image: wikimedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vulcan_medal_from_A_History_of_the_Royal_Society_of_Arts_Wellcome_L0001877.jpg)

Spots like this one are the stops myTuur strings into tours through Greater London. In the app, each story begins where you stand: walk up to a spot and it starts, read it on screen or listen as you go, then follow the route to the next one.

## What is myTuur?

myTuur is a free city-guide app. Its tours are built from spots, and each spot carries a story that starts when you get there, to read or to listen to as you like.