Clubs and Societies Arts page page 34 24 ArtsFest page 6 Expedition Malawi Guardian Student Newspaper of the Year e student newspaper of Imperial College No. 1,374 • Friday • 23 February 2007 • ffelixelix felixonline.co.uk Blaze at Albert IC Library Hall Mansions to remain EMERSON VIGOUREUX an inferno Westminster Council reject planned ‘solar shading’ changes Andy Sykes number of changes to improve the Westminster Council rejected Editor-in-chief poor ventilation in the building. the planning application outright, These include extra vents and mo- meaning none of the works can go Planned refurbishments to the Li- torised windows to provide fresh, ahead. It seems the main objection brary have been blocked by West- cooler air into the building. to the plans was a dissatisfaction minster Council, meaning students These were to complement the with the change of appearance that will have to suffer another summer planned “solar shading”, which would be caused by the solar chang- of roasting temperatures in the up- would be achieved by dimming the es. This is somewhat odd, as the Li- per floors. Library’s windows. This should brary is almost completely invisible The College had to submit a plan- complement the otherwise poor from the outside of the campus, so ning application to the Council for air conditioning and the extra any change should have minimal the changes it wished to make to ventilation to reduce the ambient impact on the surrounding area. the building. The plans included a temperature. Temperatures in the Library have been a problem for the last four years; it seems the air condi- tioning system cannot cope with the large number of students and high air temperatures around the summer revision period. The large windows in the upper levels also create a “greenhouse-like” effect that makes the Library unpleasant on sunny days. The planning application is due to be resubmitted without the solar shading proposal, but it is highly unlikely the other planned improv- ments will prove sufficient to solve the Library’s overheating problem. The rejection should only slightly delay these other changes. The College and Union are look- ing for support from local residents for the shading, and are contacting the councillors known to be friendly to the College. At 10.30am on Tuesday morning, smoke was spotted coming from If you live in the borough, Felix the top of the Albert Hall Mansions building (to the east of Beit advises you to write to your local Quad). An hour later, more than 25 fire engines and assorted councillors (you can find their de- support vehicles were at the scene. The fire blazed until late tails on www.westminster.gov.uk) to evening, and Prince Consort Road was closed until the next day. No respite for overheated students this summer express your disapproval. 2 felix Friday 23 February 2007 NEWS [email protected] Waterstones Albert Hall Mansions blaze in Library Fire in the roof of the Mansions building covers South Kensington in thick smoke and closes down access to the Union by road for the whole of Tuesday closes forever The Waterstones in the Library has Greg Meade closed for good, with low sales be- Our Man on the Roof ing cited as the reason. The College outlet has competed Traffic was brought to a halt around with the store on High Street Ken- the Royal Albert Hall and Prince sington, which is only ten minutes Consort Road on Tuesday when a walk away, and has a much larger fire broke out in the upper floors of stock. the Albert Hall Mansions building. There have also been complaints The building has often housed that the College branch is more students from the College, though expensive than the Kensington they generally rent the cheaper branch, even for the core business flats in the basement level. of textbooks for IC students. At around 10.30am, smoke was The strength of Amazon’s UK on- seen around the upper floors of line bookselling business has also the building. Members of Imperial hurt sales, with many books being College Security were first on the out of stock at the College branch scene, and the Fire Brigade ar- and orders often taking more than rived shortly afterwards. Within an two weeks to complete. Amazon hour, more than 30 appliances had has a much larger range, and has arrived, and the road outside the many more textbooks in stock. building had been closed. The vacated space is now planned According to the BBC and other to become a 24-hour “supercafe”, in news sources, the fire started in a order to complement the 24-hour penthouse flat. Some sources are opening of the Library throughout reporting that it is owned “by a Mid- much of the year. The Library is dle-Eastern businessman.” generally open far later than other The flames were first spotted by buildings on campus, and those builders working on scaffolding on working there at night lack a place an adjacent roof, who had to scram- to buy coffee or snacks (apart from a ble quickly to the ground after a trio of unreliable vending machines window exploded and smoke began in the Haldane Collection section of pouring out. A maid who was in the the building). building at the time was rescued by firefighters from the upstairs windows. By lunchtime the fire had spread into the roof and into the floor be- low. Firefighters could be seen in the third floor windows attempting to spray water onto the fire. The Fire Brigade have said that part of the roof had collapsed, and there were concerns over ceilings in the lower flats collapsing due the amount of water being poured onto them from the roof. Thin and suf- focating smoke spread across the road into Hyde Park, blanketing the Top: Fire engines line the road. Bottom: smoke from the fire spreads out across West London surrounding area with a unpleas- ant-smelling fog. The builders also had the fore- ing more canisters later in the day. The building also houses a number bar at 10.30pm, a large number of sight to remove gas canisters from Mutters of evacuation were heard of fine artworks, and salvage opera- appliances were still in attendence. the immediate scene of the fire, coming from Fire Brigade radios as tions were in progress until late in It is not yet known what caused and firemen could be seen remov- the fire continued unabated. the day. When this reporter left the the fire. The now closed bookstore felix 1,374 Friday 23.02.07 No sneezing! Halo 2 masterclass “H5N1 is a highly pathogenic strain, “Halo 2 is indeed the ultimate and according to the World Health multiplayer game in my opinion... Organisation (WHO), may claim up pitchfork-wielders and CS zealots to 100% of contaminated animals take note.” within 48 hours, affecting respira- PAGE 30 tory tracts, organs and tissue.” PAGE 4 Malawi expedition “When travelling north, the team’s Brit Awards progress was halted by a drunk “Russell Brand meandered onto man who ran out in front of their the podium as the crowd burst truck. The team assisted where into cheers, many of them reveling they could but sadly the casualty at the fact that they were on tel- died that night from his injuries.” evision. I fortunately escaped this PAGE 34 fate by not being famous enough. Darn.” Unsporting behaviour PAGE 18 “Middlesex were very fowl- mouthed and swore at the ref The life at night Cake and Edwardians a number of times – apparently “I might think twice before attend- “Our students were out in force nearly every player they had on the ing the next Tidy event in April. It promoting their Centenary events pitch was a qualified ref and ‘they wasn’t the best” to every member of the College” know all the rules’.” PAGE 22 PAGE 26 PAGE 38 Friday 23 February 2007 felix 3 NEWS [email protected] RSM fight to save Sabb hustings favourite cafe descend into complete farce Free alcohol mixes with joke candidates to produce a farce A. Hack tween lectures and labs. They have by heckling, and it quickly became Our Man with a Pint also been held in Da Vinci’s bar, clear that the only way to get the but these have proved even more crowd’s appreciation was to an- Felix wishes to apologise for ever irritating to the average student, swer every question in the most suggesting that this year’s sabbati- many of whom are merely there for stupid fashion possible. The crowd cal elections could be anything but a pint and don’t wish to be yelled at (who were mostly drunk on the Claude’s Cafe in the Royal School of Mines building a farce (or at least, the hustings). by a candidate with a microphone. free drink provided) jeered at any The first hustings took place on Hustings at the Reynold’s Bar at candidate that dared to give a seri- Monday evening after Union Coun- Charing Cross Hospital have seen ous answer. John Collins did little The RSM Union has launched a catering outlet, along with typical cil, the idea being that candidates attendences of precisely zero, and to keep control of the proceedings, campaign to save their building cafe overpriced College food and drink. would face a “Question Time” grill- were in fact cancelled this year for and has been accused by some of from otherwise certain closure. Residents of the buildign are un- ing courtesy of the hacks present.