NA TURE 



481 



THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 1890. 



A SOUTH LONDON POLYTECHNIC.^ 



SOME little time ago we expressed our view s on the 

 general scheme put forward by the Charity Com- 

 missioners for the establishment of Polytechnics (we 

 must use the word, however inapplicable) in various 

 parts of London. Since then we have received a 

 copy of the architect's report on the requirements 

 of a Technical Institute for Battersea. It may be well 

 to recall to the minds of readers the main features of the 

 proposed scheme. The Polytechnic in Regent Street, 

 and the People's Palace at Mile End, are to receive large 

 endowments to enable them to continue and develop the 

 work on which they are already engaged, a large sum is 

 to be given to found a City Polytechnic, and series of 

 three new Institutes are to be established in various 

 parts of South London ; whilst others, at present more 

 or less shadowy and prospective, are talked of for other 

 parts of the metropolis. 



Of the three new Institutes, the plans for which may 

 be said to be in an advanced condition, two will be 

 housed in buildings already established. The Gold- 

 smiths' Company have bought the Royal Naval School 

 at New Cross, and are adapting and altering it so as to 

 be ready to be opened for its new purpose in October 

 next. The premises of the Borough Road Training Col- 

 lege have been secured for the second of the Institutes, 

 which is probably to be partly endowed by the Iron- 

 mongers' Company. The scheme in this case is not, 

 we believe, yet published, and some delay may take 

 place ; but, if all goes smoothly, this Institute also may 

 be ready to begin work before very long. 



The third of the proposed South London Polytechnics 

 is the Battersea Institute, for which we have received the 

 draft plans. Here there is no existing building to be 

 adapted. Everything must start de novo, and only the 

 limits of the funds at their command, and their un- 

 certainty as to the future tastes and wants of the district, 

 need restrict the trustees in their efforts to make the 

 Institute in every way worthy of its purpose. 



And here we may at the outset congratulate the 

 trustees on the mode in which they have determined to 

 proceed. They have intrusted to Mr. Rowland Plumbe 

 the task of visiting other technical schools, obtain- 

 ing necessary information, and preparing a detailed 

 statement of the requirements of the Battersea Institute, 

 and have since circulated his draft Report among various 

 experts, with requests for criticisms and suggestions. 

 The plans with which the Report is illustrated are not 

 intended to be in any way final, but merely to suggest 

 the nature of the requirements of the Institute to the 

 architect, whoever he may be, who is ultimately selected 

 to design the building. It is clear that no stone will be 

 left unturned, so far as the Committee are concerned, to 

 make the Battersea Institute a model Polytechnic. 



We may congratulate the Committee on another matter. 

 In our former article we pointed out the inexpediency of 

 attempting too much at once, while the whole question 



' " South London Polytechnic Institutes — Report on Requirements for the 

 Battersea Institute." By Rowland Plumbe, F.R.I.B.A. 



Vol. xll— No. 1065. 



of the future of Polytechnics is in an experimental 

 stage. Since then, Sir Bernhard Samuelson and other 

 members of the Executive Committee of the Technical 

 Association have publicly impressed similar views upon 

 the Vice-President of the Council, into whose hands the 

 Commissioners' scheme has now passed. We are, there- 

 fore, glad to see that Mr. Plumbe expressly states that 

 his plans are drawn up so that the proposed building 

 may be gradually constructed as the need arises; and 

 though he does not conceal his own desire to have the 

 whole building erected at once, we are glad to learn that 

 the Committee have decided to let the institution grow 

 as the number of students increases, and not to erect a 

 great shell until they see more clearly the extent of the 

 demand which it is to supply. We gather further that the 

 sum required for the endowment of the Institute is not 

 yet complete, and we may take it for granted that no 

 attempt will be made to start operations until this 

 necessary preliminary step is completed. Thus those 

 who are anxious that the whole scheme for Polytechnics 

 should not be imperilled by hastily founding too many at 

 once before one new Institute has been made a success, 

 may feel assured that the necessary interval which must 

 elapse before the foundation-stone of the Battersea Insti- 

 tute can be laid will give some further opportunity to the 

 promoters to profit by the experience which accumulates 

 every day of the working of similar institutions else- 

 where. 



To quote Mr. Plumbe's Report, " The combined form 

 of Institute ... is a growth almost of the present day, and 

 the subject as now presented is, with the hereinafter men- 

 tioned exception, comparatively new and without pre- 

 cedent.'' The exception referred to is Mr. Hogg's Poly- 

 technic, and as this is the product of the gradual growth 

 of seventeen years, the argument for going "slow and' 

 sure" is irresistible. The promoters of the Goldsmiths 

 Institute at New Cross are, we understand, equally alive 

 to this necessity. 



Mr. Plumbe has made inquiries, for the purpose of his 

 Report, into the nature of the industries of Battersea, 

 and has visited several of the chief Technical Institutes 

 in London, from the Bow and Bromley Institute up to the 

 Central Institution of the City and Guilds Institute. He 

 might, perhaps, with advantage have extended his visit 

 to some of the more important provincial centres, which 

 in some ways offer examples which are not to be found 

 in the metropolis of the kind of equipment required for 

 a popular technical school. London has long been 

 behindhand in the matter, except for the higher Colleges 

 at South Kensington, which are intended to serve a pur- 

 pose so different that their example may be disregarded. 

 There are, indeed, the two existing Polytechnic Insti- 

 tutes, and apparently Mr. Plumbe has derived from them 

 almost all his information as to the requirements of the 

 Battersea Institute. The Regent Street Polytechnic he 

 considers " most undoubtedly must serve as a model to 

 all succeeding institutions." He presumes that the Com- 

 mittee will " follow to some extent the curriculum of 

 study adopted at Mr. Quintin Hogg's Polytechnic and 

 the People's Palace." 



Without in any way challenging these conclusions, it is 

 only fair to point out that the first-hand inquiries on 

 which they are based are mostly derived from these very 



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