This Thursday (2nd February) we are delighted to welcome author Julia Harley-Green as our speaker. Julia has recently published “Never in a Fishbowl” a memoir of her life during which she both worked and volunteered in countries as diverse as Armenia, Mongolia, Romania and Ethiopia as well as Australia, the USA and the UK. She observes and illustrates humourously that cultural differences illuminate what is really important when interacting at home and abroad. Her reminiscences are sure to fascinate and entertain. Our meeting will start at 7.30 pm.
Debby writes…A grey day, but the spirits of the members and guests of the West Hampstead WI were high as we embarked on our first outing of 2023. The location…The Institute of Engineering and Technology building in Savoy Place. Designed by H Percy Adams and Stephen Salter it was built in 1889 for the Royal College of Surgeons. In 1909, it was taken over by the engineers who started life as the Society of Telegraph Engineers and evolved a few times, becoming the IET in 2006.
Our tour encompassed the building’s interior design as well as the plush lecture theatres and meeting rooms celebrating the achievements of the men such as Faraday, Bell and, of course, Haslett. I mention Caroline Haslett because she was the first secretary of the Women’s Engineering Society and did much to liberate us from the drudgery of domestic chores. Salute her next time your dishwasher and washing machine are both on and you boil a kettle for a coffee!!
One little-known fact is that the BBC started its life on the third floor in a corner office overlooking the Thames. They broadcast here from 1923-1932. Apparently, they were rather noisy.
The IET’s archive centre is based at Savoy Place. As you would expect, they have a full set of every journal and I assume most published books relating to engineering and technology. Importantly, they are also custodians, via a series of bequests and donations of some very rare books; Faraday’s Journal, in a beautiful copperplate hand, complete with the odd illustration, The Methodus Geometrica, a 16th century, early printed, hand-coloured treatise on geometry and surveying as well as Marie Curie’s Ph.D. thesis to name but a few.
Faraday’s Notebook
We were also shown a selection of photographs, documents and letters – including one from Charles Dickens writing to Michael Faraday. The ‘Kinora’ (a machine to view photographs so they appear to be moving) was great fun and depicted a traffic scene from Trafalgar Square.
Our tour concluded with lunch and, much-needed, coffee in the IET café.
WHWI has a full January programme, starting off with our monthly meeting on Thursday 5 January. We have a lively and entertaining speaker for our first meeting of 2023 – An Evening with Anthony Harris will be a mixture of stories, performance and singing, but most of all fun! You don’t need to be able to sing a note. Anthony comes highly recommended by our members who have sung with the Fortune Green Choir where he occasionally stands in for the Director. We’ll be setting up from 7:15 and ready to start at 7:30pm.
There are still a few places left for our group outing – A Tour of the Institute of Engineering & Technology (IET) Building, Savoy Place, taking place on Thursday 12th January. Please email/speak to Sue Boucher if you would like to attend. The tour is free! We’ll meet on the platform at West Hampstead Underground at 10.15am to be in good time and after the visit we can choose whether or not to lunch in town.
Our monthly Coffee Morning will be on Wednesday 18th January at 10:30am at Ham Restaurant and our Craft & Natter session on Thursday 19 January from 2 – 2.30pm at the West Hampstead Women’s Centre in Cotleigh Road.
West Hampstead Women's Institute 