Scientists’ anger at plans to sell Royal Institution

 
18 January 2013

The building where some of Britain’s finest minds have made and announced scientific breakthroughs for more than two centuries could be sold in a bid to recover from a financial crisis.

Royal Institution leaders are examining the sale or partial letting of their Grade I listed headquarters in Mayfair after a £22 million redevelopment left a gaping hole in their accounts.

The building in Albemarle Street is likely to interest many neighbouring jewellery and fashion businesses — but even the suggestion of its disposal provoked uproar among scientists.

The Institution is where Sir Humphry Davy discovered sodium and potassium and where Sir Michael Faraday carried out the experiments that led to practical uses for electricity. It is home to the renowned lectures which are still broadcast each Christmas.

Chairman Sir Richard Sykes said it was “well known” that the development project in the last decade, which ended with the 2010 departure of its director Baroness Greenfield, “undermined” the charity’s finances.

New trustees had worked hard to get the charity back on a sound financial footing, he added, but more had to be done — including a re-structuring.

“It may also involve the RI sub-letting or disposing of some or all of its Albemarle Street property,” he said.

Neuroscientist Professor Colin Blakemore said: “The loss of this science icon would be a tragic signal that Britain no longer values its unique contribution to history.” Nobel laureate and chemist Sir Harry Kroto said a sale would be “staggering and outrageous”.

Chemist Martyn Poliakoff said to lose the building would be “a tragedy and a terribly sad day for science”.

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