Lords, Ladies and Gentleman witness the reopening of one of the world’s great science venues.
Matt Brown
The Royal Institution in Mayfair officially reopened today, as witnessed by a celebrity and regal guest list. HM The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh toured the building, which has been closed for two years to allow a £22 million renovation.
The new-look Ri, remodelled by architect Sir Terry Farrell, now sports a glass atrium, dining facilities and a bar. The illustrious history of the building is also celebrated, with displays flaunting the Ri’s 14 Nobel prizes and the discovery of 10 chemical elements by its scientists. The idea is to get people into the building who would not normally visit, and to provide a friendly environment in which the public can explore cutting-edge science.
This new direction is largely the vision of Susan Greenfield, Director of the Ri since 1998. “You should be able to say ‘where shall we go tonight? I know, let’s go to the Royal Institution,” she explained, during a panel discussion involving Sir David Attenborough, historian Lisa Jardine, chef Heston Blumenthal and broadcaster Adam Hart-Davis. The President of the Royal Institution, His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent, was also in attendance.
The royal party was treated to a display of culinary chemistry, when Blumenthal whipped together small cornets of ice cream using liquid nitrogen. In another room, a group of school children produced the colours of the Union flag from a clear liquid. And elsewhere Sir David Attenborough gave a short talk about animal language.
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A description of the new facilities appears in this week’s Nature, along with an interview with architect Sir Terry Farrell.
I really enjoyed your Nature news piece and Q/A, Matt, when I read them earlier this evening.
Is it true that the RI sold some of their old furniture and artefacts to help pay for the refurbishment, as I’ve heard some people surmise?
Thanks Maxine. I’m starting to get writer’s fatigue over the Ri. I also covered the quirkier aspects of the opening over on Londonist.
I don’t know about furniture, but they sold £15 million worth of property to help cover costs (they owned other buildings in Mayfair as part of their property portfolio).
Matt’s right above, my old employers definitely sold some property to help pay for the refurb, with more coming from the Heritage Lottery Fund and private donations. As for artefacts and stuff, I don’t know whether any were sold, but there are now loads of historical trinkets on display that were just in storage in the old place. Anyone who visits now will see a lot more about how science was done in the past then they ever could have before.