Historian David Olusoga to Deliver the 2026 South Shields Lecture

For twenty-five years, the South Shields Lecture has brought a major public figure to the town for one evening each summer, free of charge and open to residents. This year the tradition continues with one of Britain's most widely followed historians. On Friday 10 July 2026, the broadcaster and historian David Olusoga will appear in conversation at Harton Academy for the 16th South Shields Lecture, hosted by David Miliband, the former Member of Parliament for South Shields.

It is a genuinely local occasion dressed up as a national one. The lecture is not a party-political event, and history rather than politics is the theme of the evening. For anyone in South Shields with an interest in how the past shapes the present, it is a rare chance to hear a leading historian in person, in a school hall in their own town, without paying a penny.

Who is speaking, and when

David Olusoga is Professor of Public History at the University of Manchester and a familiar face from television series including A House Through Time and Black and British: A Forgotten History. He grew up in the North East, and in announcing the lecture said he was "thrilled to be giving this year's South Shields Lecture and to be returning to my home region." He will be interviewed on stage by David Miliband in a conversation billed as exploring public understanding of history and how global connections shape the future.

• What: The 2026 South Shields Lecture, in conversation with David Olusoga
• Where: Harton Academy, South Shields
• When: Friday 10 July 2026, from 6pm
• Cost: Free

Best for:

Tickets are free but limited to a maximum of two per household. Priority is given to residents in the NE33, NE34 and SR6 postcodes. Requests are made by email to events@hartonacademy.co.uk, with applicants notified of the outcome.

A quarter-century of visitors to the town

The South Shields Lecture began in 2001, when the former Labour leader Neil Kinnock delivered the inaugural talk. In the years since, the series has drawn a remarkable roll-call of speakers to the town, among them Hillary Clinton, Sir Patrick Stewart, the film director Danny Boyle, James Corden, and former prime ministers Sir John Major and Tony Blair.

The through-line has always been the same: a well-known figure, a school hall in South Shields, and an audience made up largely of local people. That the lecture has kept going for sixteen editions says something about the town's appetite for ideas and conversation, and about the value of an event that treats residents as its first audience rather than an afterthought.

Why it matters locally

Events of this scale rarely land in South Shields, and rarer still are the ones that put local residents at the front of the queue. The postcode priority is a deliberate choice: this is a lecture for the town first. It also sits comfortably alongside the town's wider cultural life, from the museums and archives at The Word and Arbeia Roman Fort to the ongoing work at The Customs House. Bringing a historian of Olusoga's standing to Harton Academy adds to that picture.

This year's lecture is supported by the University of Sunderland, Colmans of South Shields, and Fenwick. Full details of the 2026 event were published by the University of Sunderland.

---

Have a story? Get in touch.