The Bishopsgate Institute

Abstract

The Bishopsgate Institute lies in East London, very much off the beaten academic track, though it is held in great affection by a small band of labour historians. The Reference Library has a loyal following of readers from the nearby Salvation Army Hostel ('Some of them have been coming here for donkey's years'), and at lunchtime it fills up with City office-workers (almost all male, there are very few women or girls, though they supply the offices with the bulk of their work force). Family tree-hunting, according to Mr. Webb, the librarian, has been a noticeable growth point in recent years ('Especially in the last three years... Roots gave it a big boost'), and he also notes the appearance of people trying to trace the origin of their business or firm ('They come in at lunch-time day after day, slogging through the Directories'). Another recent phenomenon is that of schoolchildren assigned by their teachers to projects. Weavers' houses in Spitalfields seem to be a perennial subject. 'Everyone wants to do that', says Mr. Webb. 'If someone would publish a book about it, it would make my life a lot easier'; (if teachers were better acquainted with the library's resources, they might have other projects to suggest). There is also a small trail of academic researchers Japanese and American especially following the track pioneered by Royden Harrison, Henry Collins and Chimen Abramsky in the 1950s (see, Harrison, Before the Socialists; Collins and Abramsky, Karl Marx and the British Labour Movement). The Institute is a kind of old-fashioned arts centre. In its time 'eager and appreciative audiences' would attend the evening lectures, and its 'luncheon hour concerts', which have been a feature of the Institute from its early days, still pack in City workers (the large Steinway Grand in the concert room was left to the Institute by Myra Hess who performed there frequently). The concert-room is also used by musicians for rehearsals and one of the pleasures of going to the library is to walk the print-lined corridors, with their ancient London 'views', to the sound of a string quartet. The Institute houses a lending library as well as a reference collection, and it also acts as an examination school. People sit their 'City and Guilds' there, and it is also used for examination purposes by, among others, the Cost and Works Accountants, and the St. John's Ambulance (the Open University is a more recent addition to the list of those who find the Institute serviceable). The Institute was founded, in 1894, by the Rev. William ('Hang Theology') Rogers, whose bust presides over the reading room a cheerful, unpatriarchal figure. Rogers was the son of a metropolitan magistrate, and a Londoner born and