{"id":9477,"date":"2021-08-01T08:10:18","date_gmt":"2021-08-01T07:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/videoarchive\/?p=9477"},"modified":"2021-08-01T08:10:18","modified_gmt":"2021-08-01T07:10:18","slug":"opening-of-college-block-1969","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/videoarchive\/opening-of-college-block-1969\/","title":{"rendered":"Opening of College Block: 1969"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

\"\"<\/a>In this blog we are going to hear the 1969 opening ceremony of the new College Block, later renamed as the Sherfield Building (1975). Until now, only extracts have been heard, but here is the full recording with Lord Sherfield the Chairman of the Governing Body, HM Queen and Lord Penney Rector of the college. The full ceremony only exists as an audio recording, with a few segments filmed on 16mm film, but without synchronised sound. Strangely, we could have very easily set up video cameras and recorded the entire proceedings on videotape, but we were never asked. I guess we are just lucky that an audio recording was made.<\/p>\r\n

The images are frame grabs from the 16mm film because I have never seen photos taken in the Great Hall during the ceremony. There is a front page about the event in the edition of Felix from 4 December 1969<\/a>. Interestingly, there is a ‘typo’ in the Hannah Gay book on the history of Imperial College. In the index, under Sherfield Building it refers to it as formerly “Centre” Block, this typo only appears once!<\/p>\r\n