Mechanics Institute, Basingstoke

Founded in 1841, the aims of the Institute were to instruct members in science and useful knowledge by the means of lectures, conversation and readings as well as creating a library and museum and purchasing philosophical apparatus.  Membership was primarily for boys who had left school and men, but ladies and children under the age of 14 were invited to certain lectures and social events.  Lectures were held fortnightly in a room at the Town Hall, the first was entitled ‘The Science of Arithmetic’.  A library opened in a room at Sarum House, with 587 volumes being donated in the first year. By 1844 this growing collection moved to a room in Church Street.  A separate Reading Room was available three days a week.

One-time patron, Lord Portsmouth believed that the Institute was ‘the best means of keeping working classes from the dangers of the beer house and the allurement of the tempting doctrines of Socialism and Chartism’.

Purpose built premises were opened by Canon Charles Kingsley in New Street in 1869 and Queen Victoria presented the Institute with a copy of her Journal in the Highlands.  The building included rooms for chess and billiard tournaments, dinners, dances and smoking concerts.  A band was formed which played at the annual fêtes held in Malshanger Park, the home of another President and benefactor, Lord Wyndham Portal.

Membership dwindled and income relied on the hire of the billiard tables; ladies were admitted as full members in 1890 but the original aims of the Institute were not being fulfilled. It finally became insolvent in 1928 when the Borough Council took over the building and maintained it as a free library and museum until 1969 when new premises were found.

For a more detailed history see the link below.