Henry Cole Room

The Henry Cole Room is located within what was the Secretary’s apartments, formerly the Drawing Room. It became the Society’s main Committee Room from 1845 to 1957. Despite the more contemporary feel, it still has an original Adam fireplace.

The room was named after Henry Cole (born 1808 – died 1882). Henry Cole was arguably the re-founder of the Society of Arts in the late 1840s, transforming it from a premium awarding organisation to one more closely aligned with his priorities.

Under his guidance, we emphasised the application of art to manufactures and held many exhibitions, one of which was the Great Exhibition of 1851. This was initiated after a series of trial exhibitions at RSA House and culminated in the International Exhibition of 1862. Under Cole’s influence, we also campaigned for system-wide reforms.

It was in Cole’s period that we became involved in the transformation of the patent system in 1852, the introduction of public examinations in the 1850s, copyright reform in 1862, sanitation reform in the 1870s, and more. The Society of Arts soon became known as “King Cole’s Parliament” for providing the springboard for so many of his influential reforming schemes.

Henry Cole was a civil servant and reformer. In the 1830s he exposed corruption at the Record Commission, resulting in the creation of the Record Office, after which he assisted Rowland Hill with his campaign to introduce the penny postage – he was the likely designer of the first postage stamp, the Penny Black. In the 1840s he published the first commercial Christmas card, contributed articles to the Railway Chronicle, and published children’s books and games under the pseudonym Felix Summerly, all as part of his campaign to inject good artistic design into people’s everyday lives.

Henry Cole's Exhibition Road legacy

On the back of the success of the Great Exhibition, Cole was promoted to head up a new government Department of Science and Art, and with Prince Albert assembled the various cultural institutions at South Kensington – a name he invented – that came to be known as Albertopolis. This work led to the creation of the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria & Albert Museum), the Science Museum, the Natural History Museum, and the Royal Albert Hall, along with various other institutions.