A visit to the Royal Geographical Society 19th November 2010
F
ollowing a splendid presentation by the
Royal Geographical Society at Club some months ago our speaker‘s Secretary Ron arranged a Club visit to the Societies H.Q. in London to allow us the opportunity of seeing some of the interesting items kept relating to the many and varied expeditions organised and funded by them.
T
he number attending, was very disappointing, of the
original 23 showing interest only 9 attended on the day, no doubt due to the many pressures on Member‘s time. The Society‘s House, Lowther Lodge 1 Kensington Gore is in South Kensington which meant a straight forward jour- ney by train and short walk up Exhibition Road. On arrival we were warmly welcomed by Alasdair McCould and introduced to the ―House‖ undoubtedly one of the finest and most important
examples of 19th century architecture in London, built in the ―Queen Ann‖ style. The Society brought the house in 1912 (for £100,000) opening it‘s doors for the first time on the 14 April 1913, the lecture and library wing was added in 1928/30. In 2001 the 750 seat lecture theatre was refurbished and renamed ―The Ondaatje Theatre‖ and in June 2004 the initiative of ―Unlocking the Archives ―was completed with the opening of a new glass pavilion at Exhibition Road, which now forms
the welcoming entrance to the Society. Below the terrace and overlooking the landscaped garden, is the Foyle Reading Room together with extensive controlled storage for the Society‘s world class
collection of maps, books, archives and artefacts. M
any fine maps, portraits and objects are displayed in the corridors and anterooms including a scale model of the research ship Discovery The early maps, dated back to 1608, demonstrated how restricted was the knowledge of our planet in those times, Colin was very concerned to
find that his beloved Australia did not appear to exist. We were all pleased to see the premises being put to full and vibrant use with school classes receiving tuition and a presentation ceremony taking place. Far from what one might expected of what could be a stuffy old Society.
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