Science and Education at South Kensington¹

Abstract

A LARGE part of the area shown in the accompanying photograph was at one time Brompton Park, a fine estate famous for its snipe-shooting and for its mild and salubrious air. In 1675 the park became a market-garden, the first of its kind in England. A short distance eastwards was Knightsbridge, an outlying hamlet of London, the scene of frequent skirmishes during the Civil War.Cromwell's association with the district—there is a tradition that he lived near what is now Queen's Gate—is preserved in the name Cromwell Road. Knightsbridge and Brompton maintained their sequestered character until comparatively recent times. It is recorded that until the middle of the nineteenth century, which must be well within the memory of the oldest inhabitant, people started from Hyde Park Corner at regular intervals in bands for mutual protection, and a bell was rung to warn pedestrians when the party was about to set out. Thus the effective history of the district for our purpose begins in 1851, when the great International Exhibition was opened in Hyde Park. Its initiation and success were largely due to the Prince Consort, andappropriately, therefore, the estate, which was purchased for the modest sum of 150,000l. from the profits of the Exhibition, is dominated on the northern and higher side by the Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens and by the Royal Albert Hall. Would it be possible to find, in the whole educational history of the country, an example of money spent to greater advantage for the promotion of science and art? Sites have been provided for a splendid group of educational and public buildings and in addition a considerable annual income is received which is devoted to scientific purposes. The Exhibition of 1851 justified the hopes of its founders. It was to be for the nineteenth century what the tournament had been in mediaeval times—a challenge to every land, “not to the brightest dames and bravest lances as of yore,” but to its best produce and happiest device “for the promotion of universal happiness and brotherhood.” Happy days! Never perhaps was the spirit of the English people more buoyant, hopeful, confident. This was due in part to a growing appreciation of the benefits which science would confer on humanity.