This paper attempts to suggest the changing organisation of scientific culture and scientific institutions in London in the approximate period 1790–1820. A preliminary survey of the varieties of science in the city is followed by a treatment of one instance of informal association, the Askesian Society of 1796–1807. The intention is to provide a significant amount of data in an extra-institutional manner, and to illustrate a possible relationship between scientific culture and scientific advance. It is hoped that the essay might (...) provide a starting-point for subsequent treatments of group science in urban contexts during this phase of England's history. (shrink)