After an exhausting but enjoyable 36 hours in London, Mark Rowe considers how you can better yourself culturally – and for the good of your health – by day and night, and how that’s secured.
A recent study by researchers at University College London (UCL) found ‘evidence for arts and cultural engagement to be recognised as a health-promoting behaviour in a similar way to exercise’. In other words, ‘evidence that arts and cultural engagement is linked to a slower pace of biological ageing’. By coincidence, UCL was the first place I passed on leaving Euston station for work things in the capital. Whether you live and work there or business takes you there, London is one of the world’s premier places for experiencing cultural things – some, free. UCL for example has an exhibition to mark its 200th anniversary. Professional Security Magazine featured UCL’s head of security Ollie Curran while chair of the campus security managers’ association Aucso. Ollie’s message; visitors (including Professional Security!) are welcome on campus, whether to spend money at a coffee shop or enter the public area of a library on Gordon Square and see (behind a glass case) the stuffed body of the philosopher Jeremy Bentham. As for other unis, museums, and arts centres such as the Barbican (one of my stops), the gain for sites is at once cultural and commercial. More people through the door, means more income potentially, and if those visitors are local, that makes for good neighbours; that’s one of the drivers behind the V&A East Storehouse, taking the V&A beyond its west London origins to east London, as featured in the June 2026 edition of the magazine (and pictured). While goodness doesn’t balance budgets, unis and cultural bodies like the V&A exist to improve us, and want to welcome us in.
Hired
As for protective security, that may mean premises open beyond the traditional 9am to 5pm, though that the ‘power of hello’ and customer service skills are as relevant, to welcome the law-abiding and put off the ‘hostiles’. The welcoming of visitors can include the hiring of the premises which requires risk management, as featured in the December 2024 edition of the magazine. Risks may be damage from spilled red wine. Or, even if a big-name corporate is the hirer, people have too much to drink and make a nuisance. If a guest (as has happened) lies on the floor or pavement, what is Security to do (because invariably they’re the ones called to the problem)? If they leave the person, what of duty of care – maybe they really need help? If you try to help them up, might they turn aggressive, whereas if you leave them, they go eventually?
Socialise
If you’re in London, some scrolling on Eventbrite or the events part of a university’s website may bring up a lecture, launch soiree or get-together, either in your field (notably Dr David Rubens’ Institute of Strategic Risk Management, ISRM, has a London hub putting together gatherings) or of general interest. I recall at one security event I had a good conversation about tech with a young American man who had done just that; he used to find online and attend events not relevant to his work, but he contributed to the socialising, and learned. For ideas bounced around with people you don’t usually meet, can be the most useful.
QR codes
Hybrid ideas are echoed by hybrid premises: the university campus that also has a room like a museum, and retail outlets, with the risks each bring. The Barbican has a City of London Corporation library that was running an exhibition of pop culture in 1996, including a costume as worn by Geri Spice and a cat-suit of Mel B’s, all behind glass cabinets. Entry is free. Meanwhile at Senate House, part of the University of London in Bloomsbury was an exhibition about ‘the English printing revolution’ from William Caxton on. Open to the public; but on emerging out of the lift on the fourth floor, you face a counter. As I was short of time I didn’t fancy a lengthy procedure of registering. In fact, entry was simple: on stating my business, the receptionist handed me a strip of paper with a QR code that opened the ‘gates’ to the access-controlled library otherwise only for students. The exhibition was in a room before the further access-controlled rooms where students study, that the QR code (which also opened the gates for exit) didn’t extend to. This method neatly avoided ‘friction’ to the one-time visitor, while protecting students from the opportunist laptop thief who might abuse the welcome. UCL showed off some of its collections (priceless early printed books) while protecting them behind glass under controlled lighting (to avoid harm to the perhaps 500-year-old paper).
