Class Trips and the Meaning of British Citizenship: The Regent Street Polytechnic at Home and Abroad, 1871–1903

Abstract

At the launch of the tourist season in the spring of 1895, John Cook, the director of one of Britain’s largest commercial travel agencies, Thomas Cook & Son, sent a series of missives to the Education Department demanding redress. In the letters, Cook accused Quintin Hogg, the founder of the London Regent Street Polytechnic and Young Men’s Christian Institute (YMCI), of using — perhaps even misappropriating — government educational grants to fund the Polytechnic Touring Association (PTA) and its “educational and co-operative tours.” “Pray do not misunderstand me,” Cook advised in one communique, “I am willing to admit that travelling is an important feature of education, but at the same time, I maintain that Thos. Cook & Son have done, and are doing more toward that particular line of education than anybody else in the Kingdom.” Thus, Cook reasoned, “if the Polytechnic is entitled to a Government allowance, then I must ask, what is Thomas Cook & Son entitled to?”1