The Faraday Theatre @ri_science @ou_stem

This delightful space might look familiar - it is The Faraday Theatre at the Royal Institution; it's where the Christmas lectures are given each year and which many of us have watched - as much as possible - for many years. These lectures were started in 1825 and have been televised, on and off, since 1936. They were not presented during the war years but otherwise the very greatest and the very goodest scientists have been in here strutting their stuff. Faraday himself was no slouch - I think he invented Fridays. Professor Monica Grady, now at The Open University, played this room in 2003. And today I was there to help Jon Rosewell run a robotics class for groups of children aged between 10 and 12. The kit is the same as we use at TXR120 residential school but we did a very cut-down session and used a gyro so that the students could program the robots to run a specific path. We worked in a smaller room across from this theatre and at the end of each session the children ran their programmed robots around that beautiful parquet floor while their parents watched and applauded. 

Just being in that space was special, it's tiny and even when full it must feel intimate. The seating capacity is 300 with a further 100 in the gallery. 

I've just remembered that Faraday had pets - possibly budgies - and is known for his hand-crafted cages or something. Perhaps he knocked out cages as a sideline in case the brass didn't roll in from the royalties on Fridays.

A great day and one I'll not forget in a long time. I also crushed the 10k steps for a nice change - that was before I walked the mile back to Victoria to avoid the tube on such a lovely sunny day. The Queen wasn't in Buck House so I didn't call in for a small amontillado and a cheroot while we caught up on what we'd both been doing - perhaps next time.