Abstract
THE Geological Survey of Great Britain is the oldest national geological survey in the world, having now been in active existence for a hundred years. It owes its inception to the private enterprise of the late Sir Henry Thomas De la Beche, who became its first director. Geological material was quickly accumulated and De la Beche was compelled to ask for museum accommodation. This was provided in a house in Craig's Court, Charing Cross, where it was opened to the public in 1841, as the Museum of Economic Geology. In 1851, the Museum was transferred to Jermyn Street, where it has continued until recently. For many years past, however, the space available has been inadequate, and it has been impossible to display to full advantage the very extensive collections of rocks, fossils and minerals in the possession of the Survey and Museum. In 1912, the Bell Committee recommended the transfer of the Museum and Survey to a site in South Kensington next to the Natural History Museum, but no action was taken until the Museums Commission met in 1927. The Government then agreed to the transfer, and the new building was completed by H.M. Office of Works in 1933. Occupation by the Geological Survey was, however, delayed by its utilisation as the meeting place of the World Economic Conference, 1933.
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Centenary of the Geological Survey of Great Britain. Nature 135, 463 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/135463a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/135463a0