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.
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.
West Hampstead Women's Institute 