Education Programme
Using the spectacular, local mausoleum of the famous Victorian explorers, Sir Richard Francis Burton and his wife, Lady Isabel Burton, Habitats and Heritage are offering free workshops and lessons for Secondary and Primary school students.
This is a brilliant way to get students engaging with a stunning piece of local history on their doorstep and using it to explore a host of intriguing themes like those listed below.
Possible topics:
Victorian Exploration
British Empire
Religions of the East
Islam and its rituals
The Hajj
Delivered by our highly qualified teacher who is also an expert on sensitive and controversial heritage, these workshops and lessons can be carefully curated to the needs of your students and the curriculum they are following.
There is also the opportunity to integrate the sessions with a free visit to the fascinating mausoleum in Mortlake, where H&H staff will take students on a guided tour of the Bedouin-tent style tomb and the church.
H&H will also develop a digital educational pack that will be made available for schools to use for free towards the end of their project, which concludes in 2026.
The workshops and lessons are offered as part of H&H’s National Lottery Heritage Fund supported project, Burton: Exploring Without Boundaries.
Habitats & Heritage are conserving the mausoleum of Sir Richard and Lady Isabel Burton at St Mary Magdalen’s Roman Catholic Church, Mortlake – a fascinating structure designed to resemble the tent that the Burtons had made for their travels across the desert in Syria. We will be reopening the mausoleum for the first time to the public in over fifty years. This has been made possible by National Lottery players.
