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The Home of Geography 51° 30’05”N;0°10’30”W • A history of Lowther Lodge by John Price Williams 2006 Professor Sir Gordon Conway 2003 Sir Neil Cossons 2000 Professor Sir Ron Cooke 1997 Lord Selborne 1993 Lord Jellicoe 1990 Sir Crispin Tickell 1987 Lord Chorley .” 1984 Sir George Bishop “I love this building. 1982 It is truly the home SirVivian Fuchs of geography 1980 Professor Michael Wise Michael Palin 1977 President, 2009-2012 Lord Hunt 1974 Sir Duncan Cumming 1971 Lord Shackleton 1969 Rear Admiral Sir Edmund Irving 1966 Sir Gilbert Laithwaite 1963 Professor L. Dudley Stamp 1961 Sir Raymond Priestley It is the home to the largest and most active scholarly geographical society in the world, supporting research, education, 1958 Lord Nathan 1954 expeditions and fieldwork, policy and General Sir James Marshall-Cornwall 1951 promoting public engagement. J.M. Wordie 1948 The Society’s House, as it’s often called, Sir Harry Lindsay 1945 Lord Rennell The home of geography welcomes some150,000 people a year to 1941 Sir George Clerk 1938 events and activities – and we are finding Sir Philip Chetwode 1936 new audiences all the time as we reach out Professor Henry Balfour 1933 Lowther Lodge has been the headquarters Sir Perry Cox to those with increasing curiosity about the 1930 of the Society for very nearly a century. Admiral SirWilliam Goodenough It’s one of the finestVictorian buildings in world and the way it works. 1 1927 The building has a fascinating history, Sir Charles Close 1925 Dr David Hogarth London, an iconic Grade II* listed building in 1922 which reflects the way the Society has Lord Ronaldshay a harmonious melange of three different eras 1919 developed and changed since moving into Sir Francis Younghusband 1917 – the grand1874 house looking out serenely Colonel SirThomas Holdich its home in1913. 1914 over Hyde Park and the Albert Memorial; the Douglas Freshfield 1911 Lord Curzon austere1930s extension on the corner of This is its story. Kensington Gore; and the exuberant, award- Presidents of winning glass pavilion of 2004 fronting the Society Since moving to Lowther Lodge Exhibition Road, which has made the Society open and accessible. There are a lot of things the building is – and some it is not. It has huge archives of maps, artefacts and publications, but it is not a museum and does not house an academic institution. Cover From Exhibition Road it is possible to see all three phases of building; the1874 Lowther Lodge, the1930 extension, and the latest 2004 entrance pavilion and display space. 1830 1870 1911 James Lowther 1912 1912 Royal College of Art 1 Kensington Gore Founded Savile Row Lord Curzon £1,250 Government gran Society buys Lowther Lodge for £100,000 Imperial College t occupied by the tailors Gieves and Lord Curzon of Kedleston was used Lodge, probably through his political Lord Curzon Hawkes. to getting his own way, but he was more links with James Lowther, Speaker of Royal Albert Hall This was the era when the Society than a politician and administrator. He the House, who had put it up forsale and the was preoccupied with colonial was a compulsive traveller, passionate after the death of his father. The auction Natural History Museum V&A Museum exploration in Africa, the Indian about geography, and had been was to be on July 30th,1912, if the ‘splendid subcontinent and central Asia. But at awarded the Society’s gold medal house were not sold earlier. home the besetting problem, which forhis exploration of the source of the The apocryphal story is that Curzon vision’... lasted fordecades, was the lack of Amu Darya (Oxus) riverin the Pamir bought Lowther Lodge in his usual high- a large enough lecture theatre to mountains of western Asia. handed manner without consulting Like many learned societies, accommodate the growing interest In the summer of 1911, he became anyone, but this is not the case. Our place in Albertopolis the Royal Geographical in geography. president of the Society, closed the By July 15th he was reporting to a Society began life as a There were premises at Burlington building fund, which had reached some special meeting of the Council that not Our building stands in one of the most important cultural gentlemen’s dining club and Gardens, borrowed from the Civil £6,000, and set up another. As well as only had he secured an option for a week quarters in Europe: the 86 acres of Kensington which contain Service Commission, but they were too gifts from Fellows, large companies like to buy Lowther Lodge for £100,000, but three great museums, the Royal Albert Hall, the Royal Colleges for 40 years of its life had no small. Many other venues were used, P&O and Burmah Oil were persuaded 1, Savile Row had been sold for £38,000 permanent home of its own. but none became a permanent home. to stump up. So were Indian princes, and another property in Vigo Street had of Art and Music, Imperial College and nine other world-class For the first10 years, from Various presidents urged action to whom Curzon had known in his vice- gone for £10,000. institutions. Many are on land bought with profits from the its founding in1830 as an remedy this problem and the lack of regal role; some were made Life Fellows “Council authorized me to enter into Great Exhibition of1851. space in Savile Row and finally, in1909, for their generosity. In eight months he negotiations...before it could be snapped institution to promote the a building fund was set up to find new added £31,000 to the fund. up by another competitor”, Curzon wrote It was a hugely successful event in in1852 offering them subsidised advancement of geographical headquarters and to construct an Curzon reported his efforts to a in a letter to Fellows two weeks later. Hyde Park organised by Prince Albert, accommodation.The remoteness of science, members met in “Explorers’ Hall”. Various ineffective special general meeting of the Society He had originally insisted that the QueenVictoria’s consort, to celebrate Kensington was too much forall of the rooms of the Horticultural attempts were made to buy premises in January 1912and added drily: Society’s new home should be in British industrial progress and the them.The RGS replied that it “...would for conversion over the next few years, “We have succeeded in persuading central London; however after seeing expansion of empire. not be compatible with the well-being Society in Regent Street, notably the Burlington Hotel and a His Majesty’s Government,who are,as Lowther Lodge he was“stung by this The Royal Commissioners for the of the Society.” London, then later at house in St James’. a rule, more given to taking money from splendid vision, forgot his objection to Exhibition of1851used part of the The1851 Commissioners still own 3 Waterloo Place and Then enter in 1911a force of nature: others than to giving it themselves,to the remoteness of Kensington, and profits to buy land to establish this the freehold of much the estate though, 15Whitehall Place. George Nathaniel Curzon, former raise their annual grant to us from £500 pushed affairs through straight away.” unique cultural site. uniquely, the Society is not on land Viceroy of India, Tory MP, future Foreign to £1,250.” He threw himself into the project It became known, slightly mockingly, owned by them because there was In1870, the Society finally found a more Secretary and for whom the word Curzon’s friends in high places with huge enthusiasm, buying furniture as Albertopolis because of the Prince’s a building on the site before Lowther permanent home when it moved to imperious might well have been had agreed the increase on the at Christie’s and even supervising the overwhelming interest in his project of Lodge was constructed. 1Savile Row, off Piccadilly, to a building coined. Among his pronouncements, understanding that it was used for a hanging of the pictures. His own portrait, ‘education for the people’. By 2012, Exhibition Road will be that was already more than100 years old. which had a great effect at the time new building and that the public should by John Singer Sargent, commissioned Prince Albert wanted all London’s transformed into a public space fitting It was cramped and, some complained, was: “Gentlemen never wear Brown have access to the map room. By the by the Society in1914, hangs above the learned societies to move to his to a great cultural quarter by huge rather squalid. Now in better shape, it is in Town.” early summer he had found Lowther marble fireplace in the Hall. new cultural quarter and wrote to them improvements in access and design. 2 3 This1882 photograph The stable block at the front of of the hall shows that it the house, where the Ondaatje is little changed today Theatre now stands, had room for six horses and three carriages, a harness room and hay loft. The coachman also lived there in some style. Life with William and Alice Lowther’s initials, surmounted by a sunflower, above the entrance in Kensington Gore. the Lowthers The sunflower was often used as a symbol by the lateVictorian arts and crafts movement of which Alice was The Lowthers were a mediaeval a fervent admirer. knightly family and landed dynasty in Cumberland and Westmorland whose sons became the Earls of Lonsdale. They enjoyed great wealth and political power. The first Earl of service in1841, serving in Italy, Russia, for the whole year. In the summer, they A few months afterWilliam’s death in Lonsdale was one of the richest Germany and finally Argentina.