The Royal Institution

The Royal Institution is a Grade I listed building originally constructed as a terraced town house in 1756. It was acquired by the Royal Institution in 1799. The building is made of brick and has three storeys with twelve bays, originally only one bay deep. Thomas Webster altered the building for the Institution in 1799, and in 1838, Lewis Vulliamy expanded it to a grander design, regularising it to thirteen bays and adding a façade with giant engaged fluted Corinthian columns on low pedestals across the three storeys. The entrance features a plain central square-headed doorway with a cornice on consoles, while the windows are revealed glazing bar sash types with flat arches. The building is topped with a deep crowning entablature and a projecting cornice, and there is a stone balustraded area.

Inside, the interior was modified for the Institution by Webster, with George Saunders as a consultant. The staircase leading to the first floor is retained from the mid-18th century house and features stone with a wrought iron balustrade that returns to a galleried landing, with plasterwork on the walls and ceiling dating from 1928. Notable interior spaces include a semicircular lecture theatre from around 1800 with a gallery, the 'Conversation Room' (the Scientific Gentleman's Library), Faraday's magnetic laboratory, and a statuary marble chimneypiece. The building underwent numerous alterations and embellishments between 1928 and 1930 by Rome Guthrie. The Royal Institution is historically associated with prominent figures such as Humphrey Davy and Michael Faraday.