Transcribed from the 1872 George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode edition by David Price.
SCIENCE AND ART DEPARTMENT
OF THE COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL ON EDUCATION.
BETHNAL GREEN BRANCH OF THE
SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM.
A BRIEF GUIDE
TO
THE FOOD COLLECTION.
(FIRST ISSUE.)
LONDON:
PRINTED BY GEORGE E. EYRE AND WILLIAM SPOTTISWOODE,
PRINTERS TO THE QUEEN’S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.
FOR HER MAJESTY’S STATIONERY OFFICE.
1872.
Price One Penny.
29951.
THE BETHNAL GREEN BRANCH OF THE SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM.
UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE LORDS OF THE COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL ON EDUCATION.
Lord President, The MARQUESS OF RIPON, K.G.
Vice-President, The Right Hon. W. E. FORSTER, M.P.
I. In tracing the origin of the Branch Museum of Science and Art at Bethnal Green it will be necessary to refer, though briefly, to the early days of the parent institution, at South Kensington, from whence a considerable portion of the new edifice and of its contents have been derived.
II. The South Kensington Museum stands on 12 acres of land, acquired by the Government at a cost of 60,000l., being a portion of the estate purchased by Her Majesty’s Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851, out of the surplus proceeds of that undertaking.
III. Here, in 1855, a spacious building was constructed, chiefly of iron and wood, under the superintendence of the late Sir William Cubitt, C.E., at a cost of 15,000l., intended to receive several miscellaneous collections of a scientific character mainly acquired from the Exhibition of 1851, and which had been temporarily housed in various places.
IV. In addition to the collections already alluded to, the whole of the Fine Art collections which had been exhibited at Marlborough House since 1852 were also removed thither, and these were supplemented by numerous and valuable loans by Her Majesty the Queen and others.
V. This building was opened on June 22nd, 1857, as The South Kensington Museum. Although in many respects well suited to its purpose, this iron building was avowedly of a temporary character, and from the first it was intended to replace it by buildings of a more architectural character and of more substantial materials. The erection of these permanent buildings was commenced at once, and at the beginning of the year 1865 sufficient progress had been made to render the removal of the iron building necessary.
VI. It appeared to the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education that “this iron building might usefully be divided into three portions, and that one of these portions might be offered to the proper authorities in the north, east, and south of London respectively, at a nominal sum, in order to assist in the formation of district museums, security being required for the completion of each portion in a suitable manner, and for its permanent appropriation to public uses.” After some correspondence with other Departments of the Government, it was decided that measures should be taken for carrying out this proposal.
VII. On May 6, 1865, a meeting of noblemen and gentlemen interested in the establishment of Suburban or Metropolitan District Museums was held at the South Kensington Museum, the Lord President of the Council, Earl Granville, being in the chair, at which the proposal was fully discussed, and a strong desire was expressed by the representatives of the various suburban districts of the north, east, and south of London to secure a share of this building, the great difficulty felt in each case being the providing of a suitable site. It was decided that after a period of six months each district should be at liberty to put in its claim to a portion of the iron building, and send its application to the Science and Art Department.
VIII. On March 7th in the following year (1866) Mr. now Sir Antonio Brady addressed the following letter to the Lord President of the Council:
Stratford, E., 7 March 1866.
May it please your Lordship,
When I and others acting with me had the honour of attending the meeting held under your Lordship’s presidency, in the Lecture Room of South Kensington Museum, on the 6th May last, on the subject of Local Metropolitan Museums, I put in a plea on behalf of the million artisans inhabiting the densely populated manufacturing and labouring districts in the East of London; and I pointed to a site most admirably placed in the very centre of the East-end, which I then hoped might be made available for the proposed museum.
The land in question, containing about 4½ acres, is close to Mile-end Station, one mile from Shoreditch on the Great Eastern Railway; it is near the junction of the Hackney and Cambridge Heath Roads, and is the centre of a network of railways, and omnibuses run in all directions, at twopenny and threepenny fares to and from all parts of London.
The site is about one mile and three quarters from the Bank of England, and two miles from the General Post Office, and taking the proposed site as a centre, within a radius of two miles are comprised a large portion of the following extensive districts, viz.: City of London, Shoreditch, Finsbury, St. Luke’s, Old Street, Hoxton, Islington, De Beauvoir Town, Canonbury, Ball’s Pond, Kingsland, Dalston, Clapton, Homerton, Hackney, Victoria Park, Old Ford, Bow, Stepney, Limehouse, Poplar (including West India Docks), parts of Rotherhithe and Bermondsey (including Surrey and Commercial Docks), Shadwell, Wapping, St. George’s-in-the-East (including London and St. Katharine’s Docks), Tower, Whitechapel, and Mile-end.
This circle of two miles radius embraces the N.E. and E. postal districts, part of the N. district, and parts of the E.C. and S.E. districts.
The land in question was bought as a gift to the poor in King James’s reign, when this part of London was open fields, and the trustees, with the consent of the Charity Commissioners, have unanimously agreed to sell the land for the purposes of the proposed museum, and to invest the purchase-money, which has been conditionally offered and accepted.
I have now the pleasure of informing your Lordship that, if this site is acceptable to the Government, I am authorised, on the part of the committee acting with me, to guarantee to raise the purchase-money necessary to acquire the fee simple, and to offer this magnificent site to the Government for the purpose of erecting thereon a museum for the East-end of London.
The site is marked red in the accompanying maps, and is more particularly described in the plan hereunto annexed; it will be seen that it occupies a most commanding position. There is no other suitable spot unbuilt on, but if we had the choice of any ground in the East-end we should recommend the position of this site in preference to any other.
It is not my purpose to enter on the advantages of local museums. After what passed at the meeting at South Kensington, the value of institutions such as we wish to see established in the East-end is admitted on all hands; but what I desire respectfully to submit to your Lordship is the kind of museum which those acting with me would wish to see erected.
During the past year the subject of local museums has been much ventilated, and as the time has now arrived when it seems a necessity to provide more room for the great national collections, we respectfully submit that it is a good and fitting opportunity to make the national collections more useful and more accessible than they now are, and I trust this splendid site may induce the Government to entertain the propositions I have the honour to submit for their consideration.
1st. From inquiries made since the meeting last May, it is found that it will be utterly and entirely impracticable for a permanent building to be erected by local efforts, or to maintain the necessary staff if a building were otherwise provided; and we feel that this could only efficiently be done by the Government as a part of one comprehensive scheme. We find it will require all our efforts to raise the funds to pay for the site, and under these circumstances we humbly submit to your Lordship that the Government should, in exchange for the site, take the whole matter into their own hands as a national affair.
2ndly. The scheme that commends itself most to our minds is, not to distribute the superfluities of the British Museum piecemeal amongst several local museums, but that typical collections illustrating one branch of science should be arranged in one of several museums in different quarters of the metropolis. The British Museum would thus be relieved of its plethora without impairing the value of any one collection; for instance, the natural history collections may be kept together in one place, the ethnological in another, so that anyone requiring to study any particular branch would know to what museum to resort.
In any plan of a museum that may be adopted for the improvement of the working classes, we submit that if they are to benefit by it to the fullest extent, it must be placed in a neighbourhood accessible to them, and must be open of an evening. We submit that it be made educational in the widest sense of the word, and that convenient and comfortable refreshment-rooms be added to the other attractions of the place.
I am to request that your Lordship will be pleased to communicate your wishes in this matter, that we, on our part, may at once take the necessary means to give legal effect to this arrangement, if concurred in by your Lordship.
The land being unoccupied would be available immediately the preliminary agreements were finally settled.
I have, &c.
(Signed) Antonio Brady, J.P.,
Honorary Secretary.To the Right Honourable Earl Granville, K.G., Lord President of Her Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council.
IX. This letter was at once taken into favourable consideration by the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education, Earl Granville and Mr. Bruce being respectively President and Vice-President. A change of Government shortly afterwards took place which caused some delay, but on December 6, 1866, the Duke of Buckingham being President and Mr. Corry Vice-President, a minute was passed recommending the proposal to the favourable consideration of the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury, and asking that an estimate of the probable cost might be included in the votes of the ensuing year. The following paragraph occurs in this minute:—
“My Lords regret that Mr. Brady’s offer on behalf of Bethnal Green can be adduced as the sole proof of the practical earnestness of the several districts of the metropolis to act in establishing district museums. Their Lordships, therefore, propose that the iron columns, flooring, stairs, window fittings, heating arrangements, &c. of the whole of the iron building should be re-erected as soon as practicable at Bethnal Green, on the free site provided by the locality, but that brick walls and a slate roof should be used instead of iron; and they estimate that the cost will be 20,000l. The works would thus be of a permanent nature.”
X. The Treasury (the Right Hon. B. Disraeli being then Chancellor of the Exchequer) accepted the proposal to re-erect the structure and to provide for its maintenance, and a vote of 5,000l. on account was granted by the House of Commons towards the cost of removal and re-erection of the building, but some delay arose in consequence of legal difficulties as to the conveyance of the ground. By the untiring efforts of Sir Antonio Brady, the Rev. Septimus Hansard, rector of Bethnal Green, Mr. J. M. Clabon, Dr. J. Millar, and others, heartily seconded by the trustees of the land and supported by the Government, these difficulties were at length surmounted, a special Act of Parliament having been obtained for the purpose (31 Vict. c. 8.), and on 13 February 1869, the four gentlemen above named, acting on behalf of the subscribers to the fund for the purchase of the site, attended at the Council Chamber, Downing Street, and presented to the Lord President and Vice-President of the Committee of Council on Education the title-deeds of the site. [7]
XI. After the removal of the materials had taken place the erection of the building was at once commenced in accordance with plans prepared for the Department of Science and Art under the direction of Major-General Scott, C.B.
XII. At the beginning of the present year (1872) the building was sufficiently advanced for the reception of objects. Two important collections, formerly exhibited in the iron buildings, already existed in the South Kensington Museum ready for transfer to Bethnal Green, the Animal Products Collection intended to illustrate the various applications of animal substances to industrial purposes, and the Food Collection, one of the most popular divisions of the Museum. These, with an important series of examples of Economic Entomology recently formed by Mr. Andrew Murray, now occupy the whole of the space on the ground floor under the galleries, and it is confidently believed that they will prove of great and abiding interest and educational value, forming as they do no inconsiderable contribution towards the establishment of a complete trade museum, the necessity for which at the East-end of the metropolis has long been recognised.
XIII. The galleries of the building on the first floor are at present assigned to Paintings and other Fine Art objects, and the Lords of the Committee of Council on Education are indebted to the generous liberality of Sir Richard Wallace, Bart., for the loan of a collection of Art Treasures of almost unexampled beauty and value, occupying the whole of the space assigned to this division. These Art Treasures, collected by the late Marquis of Hertford, K.G., during a period of 30 years, have hitherto been comparatively unknown to the English public, a large portion of the objects having been specially brought over from Paris within the last three months at the expense of Sir Richard Wallace.
XIV. The basement of the building contains a range of spacious and well-lighted rooms. A portion of this will serve as Refreshment Rooms, and it is proposed to use the remainder for educational purposes, including a Library, and rooms in which classes may receive instruction in the various branches of Science and Art.
XV. It was desired by Her Majesty the Queen that on the 24th June 1872 the Museum should be opened in state by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales on behalf of Her Majesty, the Prince being accompanied by Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales.
HENRY COLE,
Director.
The Bethnal Green Branch of the South Kensington Museum was opened to the public on Tuesday, the 25th June 1872, under the following regulations, which are the same as those of the South Kensington Museum:—Daily (except Sundays). Free admission on Monday, Tuesday, and Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (Students’ days), admission sixpence, from 10 a.m. to 4, 5, or 6 p.m., according to the season.
Tickets of Admission on Students’ days (available both for the Bethnal Green Museum and the South Kensington Museum) are issued at the following rates:—weekly, 6d.; monthly, 1s. 6d.; quarterly, 3s.; half-yearly, 6s.; yearly, 10s. Yearly Tickets are also issued to any school at 1l., which will admit all the pupils of such schools on all Students’ days. To be obtained at the Catalogue Sale Stall of each Museum.
A BRIEF GUIDE
TO
THE FOOD COLLECTION. [9]
*** An Inventory of the Collection, arranged alphabetically, and containing fuller information than this Guide, can be obtained at the Catalogue Stall, Price Sixpence.
The idea of the Food Collection (originally formed in 1857), now removed from the South Kensington Museum and arranged in the lower Gallery on the North side of the Branch Museum at Bethnal Green was suggested by Thomas Twining, Esq., of Twickenham, as part of a plan for the establishment of an Economic Museum that should comprise illustrations of every-day life for the working classes. The Food Collection was at the commencement of its formation carried on under the direction of Dr. Lyon Playfair, M.P., and, as now constituted, has been arranged with the express object of teaching the nature and sources of the food which rich and poor alike need for the maintenance of their daily life. Considerable progress has been made in carrying out this design, and the present brief Guide is intended as an introduction to the general principles and plan upon which the Collection has been arranged. Two great objects have been kept in view in the Collection:—
First, to represent the chemical compositions of the various substances used as food; and, secondly, to illustrate the natural sources from which the various kinds of food have been obtained. Where the processes of the preparation of food admit of illustration, these are also exhibited.
There are many methods by which such a Collection might be arranged; but the Chemical Composition of Food has recently been discovered to have so close a connexion with its action on the system, that it has been deemed advisable to follow a Chemical arrangement. All food is found to be composed of the same materials or elements as the Human Body. The necessity of the supply of food from day to day depends on the fact, that the elements of the human body are daily wasted by the processes of life. As a fire cannot burn without a supply of fuel, neither can the human body live without its daily supplies of food.