A while back I wrote about the imminent demise of Britain’s Royal Institution, a historic venue for research and the dissemination of science to the public. Because of financial difficulties, the Royal’s building in Mayfair was up for sale. Seeing what a disaster this would be, I urged readers to sign a petitions and spread the word.
I take no credit at all for the favorable outcome, which is due almost entirely to the campaigns of bigwigs like Nobel Laureate Harry Kroto, but I’m still enormously chuffed to report that, according to The Guardian, the royal has been saved—for the nonce:
The Royal Institution has been bailed out of a cash crisis that threatened to force the organisation from its Mayfair home. Sir Richard Sykes, chairman of the 200-year-old institution, said it had received a donation of £4.4m that would clear its debts and give the board time to develop a fresh strategy to finance the charity.
The cash from an anonymous foundation will pay off the RI’s immediate loan and overdraft which had to be settled by March. The loan was secured against the RI’s premises, an imposing £60m grade I-listed building in Mayfair.
I don’t know who the anonymous donors were, but thank Ceiling Cat they appeared! There still remain formidable financial problems, but I’m heartened by the group of people the Royal has assembled to give it new direction. Check it out:
The task of defining a fresh vision for the RI falls to the new “future direction committee”, chaired by Lord Winston. Also members are: Sir Paul Nurse, president of the Royal Society; Professor Colin Blakemore, an Oxford neuroscientist; and physicists Brian Cox and Jim Al Khalili.
h/t: Michael
Telegraph and BBC have details as well
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/9941224/Royal-Institution-home-granted-stay-of-execution.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21850896
Excellent result! This is such a unique institution with a historical legacy second to none.
Anyone can support the Ri by becoming a member or making a donation. It’s not just for practicing scientists! I’m printing off my DD mandate for membership now…
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If you have an evening suit you can turn up to the Friday night functions!
I might just do that next time I’m down in London on a Friday night… unfortunately rare, though.
/W
*missed the “@” key!!
I never feel any sort of awe whatsoever in visiting any renowned cathedral or religious shrine, all supposedly representing “a monument to the human spirit”, but my visits to the RI have never failed to send shivers down my spine. The RI represents the most noble ambitions of our human nature – our unquenchable desire to know the reality of the world in which we live – and the high achievements of science in forwarding this knowledge. I’m certain that future generations will thank us for saving this historic building. That we ever came so close to allowing it to become nothing but the London pad of some Russian oligarch or Middle Eastern oil prince shows just how shallow our present society really has become.
For me artistic, aesthetic and engineering accomplishments of a grand scale can easily overcome my dislike of religion. Awe is exactly what I have felt when experiencing a 10th or 13th century cathedral, like the one at Worms, Germany. I feel it would be tragic to loose such magnificent achievements despite their religious connection.
Such buildings will be useful as libraries and public spaces when the christians are gone. I wouldn’t be in favor of public money being used to maintain them as superstition centers for christians alikes.
Me neither. But I would consider public money being used to maintain them as cultural / historical sites. But that does present a quandary.
Turn them into science etc. museums, or even “just” a museum of their art.
Very good news indeed. Let’s hope that all this talk of reinvigorating science education is more than just a government headline as well.
I suppose it is a noteworthy cause but the Royal in the name puts me off.
Patron: Her Majesty The Queen
Vice Patron: HRH The Prince of Wales
President: HRH The Duke of Kent
All of these majesties and highnesses…
Don’t let it. The good the Ri does more than makes up for the royal connections (which is almost inevitable for such a historical body) …
I’d be more troubled specifically by Charles’s anti-science inclinations. It’s more than ironic having him as vice patron. More a sort of anti-patron.
The Christmas [more irony] lectures alone make it worthwhile.
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PS. And the cause maybe both notable and worthy… 😉
Very good news! The RI has been on my list of places to take the kids for a while now, and now I have been given a little more time to get it done.
A rock star physicist on the “future direction committee” can only be a plus. For some reason Buckaroo Banzai always comes to mind when I think of Brian Cox. Would Brian Cox happen to be a cutting edge brain surgeon as well?
No, but the other Brian Cox did play Hannibal Lector…
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LOL!
Let us pray the mystery donor foundation’s name doesn’t begin with a “T”
While Sir Harry K. wouldn’t stand for that [see his remarks about his friend Rees] other “influencers” at the institution will be less principled.
The last thing they would be is anonymous.
This is good news. I grew up watching the famous Ri Christmas lectures, and have attended several talks there as an adult. I am going to one in April which looks at the progress in Origin of Life science. My life would be a little poorer without the Ri, and I think it is an institution which enhances the reputation of London.
Wonderful though the work of the RI is, why does it have to maintain a presence in a £60m building in central London and pay the full costs of doing this? Nationalise the building as a public good and let the RI occupy it rent free or realise the capital locked up in the building, move the RI somewhere cheaper and put the money to good use doing what the RI does so wonderfully well…promoting science and reason.
If the BBC can decamp to Manchester perhaps the RI could live in, say, Bradford.
What very clear thinking p.
And while we’re at it lets sell off Down House to some yuppie and move all of Darwin’s things over to a high rise in Balham, where people can still get the chance to see them.
Who gives a s*** about historical connections anyhow?
History does matter, but what the RI does in the future matters more and it will be less effective if it’s hobbled by the costs of maintaining expensive assets.
I think I’d prefer Peckham for the contents of Down House. Then Mandela House could be their new home.