Royal Victoria Hall and Morley Memorial College

Abstract

I HAVE only just read the article on Polytechnics for London in your number for January 16 (p. 242). I hope it is not too late to offer a few words of comment on it. Nothing is said of that part of the Commissioners' scheme which applies to the Royal Victoria Hall and Morley Memorial College, probably because the amount intended for them is comparatively small—£6000 down for structural alterations, and £1000 a year to be divided between Hall and College. But it derives an importance beyond what is due to the amount of the grant, from the fact that it is no castle in the air, but a going concern, and had begun its useful, life long before the Commissioners had planned their scheme. Moreover, many of your strictures do not apply to this particular part of it. You say there will be, under the new scheme, “no People's Palaces—only Young People's Institutes.” You object to limitation of age, and to smoking being forbidden, and you conclude by urging most truly that “life should come first, then buildings,” for life develops from within.