History
The Grade II* listed building was the first of the three major buildings designed by architect Charles Harrison Townsend (1851–1928). The other two are the nearby Whitechapel Gallery and the Horniman Museum in South London. His work combined elements of the Arts and Crafts movement and Art Nouveau style, along with the typically Victorian.
Since opening on New Year's Day 1895, Bishopsgate Institute has been a centre for culture and learning.
The original aims of the Institute were to provide a public library, public hall and meeting rooms for people living and working in the City of London. The Great Hall in particular was erected for the benefit of the public to promote lectures, exhibitions and otherwise the advancement literature, science and the fine arts.
Bishopsgate Institute was built using funds from charitable endowments made to the parish of St Botolph's, Bishopsgate. These had been collected by the parish for over a period of 500 years, but a scheme agreed by the Charity Commissioners in 1891, enabled these to be drawn together into one endowment. Reverend William Rogers (1819–1896), Rector of St Botolph's and a notable educational reformer and supporter of free libraries, was instrumental in setting up the Institute and ensuring that the original charitable aims were met.
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“What has history to do with me? Mine is the first and only world! I want to report how I find the world. What others have told me about the world is a very small and incidental part of my experience. I have to judge the world, to measure things.”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)
“In history as in human life, regret does not bring back a lost moment and a thousand years will not recover something lost in a single hour.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)
“You that would judge me do not judge alone
This book or that, come to this hallowed place
Where my friends’ portraits hang and look thereon;
Ireland’s history in their lineaments trace;
Think where man’s glory most begins and ends
And say my glory was I had such friends.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)