Be inspired at... The Chemistry Centre

It has been over a year in the making, but the Chemistry Centre at the RSC's premises in central London is now ready to open its doors to RSC members and the public. The centre is a suite of rooms in the Burlington House offices that can used by the RSC, members and external organisations to host a range of events, from committee meetings and seminars to report launches and public lectures.

The RSC has spent over £2 million on refurbishing the rooms, in particular the library, to create a flexible space that can be configured in a variety of ways, enabling a range of different events to take place. The centre aims to celebrate both chemistry's past and its future so the development has striven to combine the historic features of the 19th century building with a fresh feel and modern facilities.

The Chemistry Centre is made up of six rooms in total. On the first floor of the building are the interconnecting rooms of the Library, Coffee Area, Council Room, and Hinshelwood Room, along with the adjacent Priestley Room (see plan). The Fish Room on the ground floor completes the venue.

Helen Pain, RSC Manager of Member Services, who has overseen the development, emphasises the adaptability of the rooms: "This is especially true for the Library - its refurbishment has been the most complex part of this redevelopment. The room has become a beautiful events venue, while remaining as a functional library."

Member facilities

There have been several improvements made to the facilities that are on offer to members, as Helen explains. "The old Librarian's Office has become a coffee area, where we hope members can relax between meetings. And wireless internet allows visitors to surf the web or access RSC resources, including the Virtual Library." 

There is also a new Members' Room, located on the upper level of the Library. This has four workstations, allowing members to use the Library's online facilities or simply check emails. Glass doors, designed by Lucy Amsden of Central St Martin's School of Art and Design, combine chemistry and art to provide the room with both privacy and light.

Flexible spaces

All the rooms in the Chemistry Centre have been equipped with up to date audio-visual facilities. "The Council, Hinshelwood and Priestley rooms have mobile projectors, screens and other devices available," explains Helen, "while the out-dated media wall in the Fish Room has been replaced with a new video conferencing facility." 

In her view, the Library is the best demonstration of how the venue has been modernised. As well as widescreen presentation facilities, including a projector screen that can be retracted when not in use, there are cameras to allow events to be recorded. Live web-streaming of proceedings to people all over the world on the internet will be possible, and recorded events can be archived for future use.

A sound system and large screens on either side of the library guarantee that everyone can see and hear what is being discussed. There are also two additional screens on the walls of the coffee area, which can act as a space for audience overflow for very popular events.

"We will also be able to host and display live feeds from elsewhere in the world. This facility could place the RSC at the heart of the international scientific community," says Helen.

As the range of events that can now be run in Burlington House has increased dramatically, so the demand on catering has grown. To accommodate this, the basement kitchen has been enlarged and completely refitted.

An exciting future

The venue opened for its first event on Saturday 19 September 2009, when the RSC took part in London Open House, which allows the public the opportunity to tour buildings of architectural interest in London. Since then the RSC has also hosted the re-launch of the Organic Mechanisms Reactions group and an event for the Food Standards Agency.

Many more events are planned for the next few months. A new public lecture series will be running on the first Wednesday of the month from November. The venue will also host a range of Chemistry Week events in November.

As well as many member-run conferences and symposia, other events being hosted in the Chemistry Centre include the Pfizer Organic Chemistry Poster Symposium, a workshop for science communicators run by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills and a reception for GlaxoSmithKline.

While the main library is being used for events, members will still be able to access the Members' Room and coffee area and to use the online resources. Staff will be available to assist members in accessing books from the main library where possible.

Opening hours for the main library are available from the link. Please check ahead of your visit.