East End, West End: Science Education, Culture and Class in Mid-Victorian London

Abstract

In early nineteenth-century London scientific activity was located mainly in two areas, Westminster and the City. Westminster, with its learned societies, was the focal point of a largely gentlemanly science founded upon the expertise of the Westminster scientific elite, the gentleman scientists and the skilled Westminster artisans. In the city, the Guilds promoted instruction serving the many technically based manufacturing industries that existed in London’s East End, an area that was also home to a number of scientific societies and clubs serving the interests of those in the various trades. In the aftermath of the 1851 and 1867 Exhibitions, with a growing awareness of foreign competition in trade and industry, there was much pressure on the government to promote higher education in the sciences. This paper examines the cultural identities of three of London’s mid-nineteenth-century scientific educational institutions, two located in the West End, the Royal College of Chemistry and the Royal School of Mines as well as the City and Guilds of London Institute, located in the East End. In comparing them it will be shown that while the West End institutions show the infusion of gentlemanly ideals held by members of the government, high civil servants and the members of learned societies located near by, and the East End institution shows something of guild and trades ideals, their scientific cultures cannot be easily demarcated. These cultures were hybrids in which various shared ideals, differently weighted, were represented.