Celebrate our 80th anniversary

In 1938 Warsaw was one of the first five cities where the British Council opened an office outside the UK. The Second World War closed us down, but we reopened in 1946, in a room in the ruins of the Hotel Bristol.

Determined to carry on, we began teaching English using course books and lectures. In 1956, we introduced our first piece of technology to the teaching mix: the gramophone.
Since then, we have introduced all sorts of new kit, such as interactive whiteboards and mobile apps to fit into the lifestyles of today’s learners.

In the early 60s, we started doing arts events of every kind to showcase the breadth of talent from the UK and Poland. Over the years this included working with top presenters and festivals to bring prominent British theatre companies to Poland.

And recently we’ve taken the arts state-of-the-art! Our partnership with Multikino lets us bring the best of British theatre and dance to audiences in cinemas across Poland.

Performances in the UK are recorded live using superb film-making technique and vision to make the audience in Poland feel as if they were watching the shows on stage in London.

Since the beginning, the British Council has worked with Poland's literature festivals and publishers to bring outstanding writers to Poland and ensure their writing gets translated into Polish.

Over the years the list has included famous names from classic authors such as Seamus Heaney and John Le Carré, to contemporary ones like Zadie Smith and the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 2017, Kazuo Ishiguro.

In 2017 we showcased the finest in literary talent from Poland and Britain. The Poland Market Focus at the London Book Fair highlighted the breadth and vibrancy of contemporary literature from Poland and how it reflects the country's distinct point of view.

The UK is home to a huge number of Nobel Prize winners, so from the beginning it was important to the British Council in Poland to support and develop talented scientists.

Academic exchange programmes enabled Polish and British scientists to visit each other and work together. There were special programmes to encourage joint research projects between young scientists too.

Nowadays, FameLab showcases science communication on a global scale. Over 4,500 brilliant young scientists participate in the Famelab competition, which requires them to entertain, inform and educate the world about their work...all in less than three minutes!