200 Years of Caffeine and Collegiality: The Evolution of the ASCR

With UCL celebrating its Bicentenary this year, we will hear how College has from its earliest days allocated rooms close to the centre of the Bloomsbury site for use as staff common rooms. Over those 200 years, these rooms have provided a place for (relative) quiet, collegial friendship, reading, coffee, academic inspiration and collaboration. The actual facilities provided have waxed and waned, their management has evolved from patriarchal to democratic, and the membership has grown to encompass the full UCL community. There will be glimpses of the thousands of members who have sipped and smoked their way through their leisurely moments, and we can revel in the social programme that has become a part of ASCR tradition.