Fellows' Room returns
They’re out – Royal Academy staff, who have been temporarily occupying the Fellows’ Room at Burlington House, will quit in September. Dawne Riddle reports
Pictures: Work in the Fellows’ Room, 2016, to improve electrical and IT facilities prior to its occupation by RA staff. Photos: Ted Nield.
The Fellows’ Room, a comfortable lounge adjacent to the Upper Library in Burlington House, will return to Society use in the autumn. An announcement in the Society email newsletter, sent out on May 30, broke the news under the headline ‘Update on Burlington House facilities for Fellows’.
The note stated: “…after current occupation by the Royal Academy ends, the Fellows’ Room will be used as part of the Plate Tectonics at 50 conference in early October. Council have agreed that thereafter it will become available to Fellows again but also be used for other purposes such as conferences and meetings, which will mean that access will be unavailable from time to time.”
For those periods when the Fellows’ Room is being used for ‘other purposes’, the email Newsletter report concluded, “we are also planning to add some relaxed seating in the Lower Library as well as a coffee machine” for Fellows wishing to rest, or hold informal meetings.
The move brings to an end a situation that sparked concern at the 2016 AGM and reported here a year ago (Geoscientist 26.7, August 2016), over an announcement made to staff in May 2016 that the Fellows’ Room was to be ‘sub-let’ to the RA for 13 months, and that it was to close immediately for refurbishment (pictures).
The room has been unavailable since then. Ted Nield