ROYAL EMPIRE SOCIETY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24634, 16 June 1941, Page 6

ROYAL EMPIRE SOCIETY

BUILDING DAMAGED BY BOMB SEVERAL FLOORS GUTTED l 0 C ) LONDON, May .21. The building of the Royal Empire Society in Northumberland avenue, which' was built a few years ago at a cost of about £250,000. and contained materials brought from, almdst every uart of the British Commonwealth, was partly destroyed by bomb and fire "during a recent raid on London. The building ■ was extensively daxttaged on the Northumberland avenue side bv a large bomb, which burst obliquely through one floor and penetrated to another, Greater damage was caused to the interior by the resulting Are which, according to eye-witnesses, seemed to break out simultaneously on severri floors. The A.R.P. staff on duty were unable with their limited equipment to deal with such a burst of tlame. , The first second, third, fourth and fifth floors were mostly gutted. On the first floor the research room, containing 15,000 volumes of the •law library, and the newspaper room, where files of the chief in all parts of the -Empire were kept, were destroyed. The only contents of the council chamber on the fourth floor left intact were two marble pillars given by Malta. About 35,000 volumes are estimated to have been lost, and others . have been damaged bv waler. but -the bulk of the society's library of 26Q.000 volumes has been saved. S< The pacts of the building that escaped with only minor damage were a section of the first floor, including most of the general library, all the ground floor, the billiard room, the basement, including the 'assembly hall, practically all the Craven street wing. and.the kitchen and staff rooms on the top floor. In this limited space the work of the society continues, and its members meet.