Since 1925 the Royal Philatelic Society London has occupied an extremely grand townhouse at 41 Devonshire Place in Marylebone - one of the most expensive and most exclusive areas of London. However the society claims that the old building needs refurbishment and rewiring and also needs a lift so that members - many of them elderly - can get to the meeting rooms.
The Society has more than 1,000 members, including several billionaires, and has close links to the Royal Family. George V was for many years the President of the Society - and contributed £100 to the cost of buying the premises in Devonshire Place. The present curator of the Royal Philatelic Collection is a Fellow of the Society and the Queen is the patron of the society.
The decision has come as a surprise to members. The Society had spent a lot of money on devising plans and seeking planning permission for alterations to the existing buildings. However a report by the RPSL Council has indicated that plans to stay at Devonshire Place are simply not practical.
Frank Walton, president of the society, sent out an email to members on Friday (11 November). He explained that the cost of upgrading the existing building would be around £6 million. ‘We just don’t have this amount of financial reserve,’ he said. The RPSL would prefer to sell the building - currently valued at just under £7 million - and buy something more suitable.
The society was founded as the Philatelic Society, London in 1869. In 1906 Edward Vll allowed the society to change its name to the Royal Philatelic Society London. The new premises would have to be large enough to accommodate meeting rooms, an extensive library of library of philatelic books and a small museum of postal and philatelic artefacts.
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