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First look inside Terry Farrell's refurbished Royal Institution
Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent05.09.08
The Royal Institution of Great Britain, home to the science establishment for more than 200 years, reopens this weekend after a £22 million revamp.
The charity's Grade I-listed Georgian headquarters and museum in Mayfair has undergone a refurbishment by architect Sir Terry Farrell.
It means new visitors will be able to see much more of its collection of scientific artefacts and benefit from a bar and restaurant for the first time.
A family fun day tomorrow gives the first glimpse of the makeover at 21 Albemarle Street and the work is set for completion by the end of the month.
Susan Greenfield, director of the Royal Institution, said: "After more than two years of closure, we are excited to be reopening our doors this summer to visitors once again.
"We have something for everyone. It is free to visit and the exhibition, public programme and Time and Space café, restaurant and bar offer a stimulating and relaxed environment to see, hear and talk about science."
The Institution is most famous for its annual Christmas lectures, which are broadcast from the lecture theatre named after Michael Faraday, the physicist and chemist who was one of the early directors and speakers. Its lectures were once so popular that carriage congestion led to Albemarle Street being made the first one-way route in London.
Modern-day scientists who have spoken in the theatre include Sir David Attenborough.
But it also has a collection of around 10,000 scientific artefacts. Only a tenth used to be displayed but the new exhibition galleries mean around 1,200 are now going on view.
Highlights include the equipment with which Faraday discovered the law of electromagnetic induction, Humphry Davy's original safety lamp and the first Thermos flask designed by Sir James Dewar. It is also possible to see Faraday's original 1830s laboratory and look inside a state-oftheart nanotechnology lab.
Claire Gardner, the manager, said: "The majority of what we do is very much engaging with the public. But one of the problems in the past was that we are in Mayfair, with an imposing frontage of Corinthian columns and we haven't been inclusive or welcoming to passers-by."
The development has made it easier to welcome visitors. It is hoped that the Institution will now become a social meeting place as well as a venue for promoting popular interest in science.
The Royal Institution was founded in 1799 and quickly built a reputation for its lectures and the scientific work carried out on its premises by figures such as Faraday, Davy and Dewar. It can boast associations with 14 Nobel Prize winners and claims the discovery of 10 elements of the Periodic Table.
