The Surrey Institution was an organisation devoted to scientific education and research, based in London. It was founded by private subscription in 1807, taking the Royal Institution

Royal Institution

The Royal Institution of Great Britain is an organization devoted to scientific education and research, based in London.-Overview:...

 - founded in 1799 - as a model. Early meetings were held at the London coffee house on Ludgate Hill

Ludgate Hill

Ludgate Hill is a hill in the City of London, near the old Ludgate, a gate to the City that was taken down, with its attached gaol, in 1780. Ludgate Hill is the site of St Paul's Cathedral, traditionally said to have been the site of a Roman temple of the goddess Diana. It is one of the three...

.

The Institution offered members and visitors lectures on a variety of subjects, the earliest of which included chemistry

Chemistry

Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....

, mineralogy

Mineralogy

Mineralogy is the study of chemistry, crystal structure, and physical properties of minerals. Specific studies within mineralogy include the processes of mineral origin and formation, classification of minerals, their geographical distribution, as well as their utilization.-History:Early writing...

 and natural philosophy

Natural philosophy

Natural philosophy or the philosophy of nature , is a term applied to the study of nature and the physical universe that was dominant before the development of modern science...

, given by employed and visiting scientists, scholars and artists. Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla...

, for instance, lectured on the belles lettres in 1812-13;; William Hazlitt

William Hazlitt

William Hazlitt was an English writer, remembered for his humanistic essays and literary criticism, and as a grammarian and philosopher. He is now considered one of the great critics and essayists of the English language, placed in the company of Samuel Johnson and George Orwell. Yet his work is...

, on the English Poets in 1817; Goldsworthy Gurney

Goldsworthy Gurney

Sir Goldsworthy Gurney was a surgeon, chemist, lecturer, consultant, architect, builder and prototypical British gentleman scientist and inventor of the Victorian period....

 found employment there in 1822, and there devised an improved blowpipe

Blowpipe (tool)

The term blowpipe refers to one of several tools used to direct streams of gases into any of several working media.- Blowpipes for torches :...

 for which he won some renown.

The institution determined upon its name after a property convenient for its needs was found on Blackfriars Road on the south side of the Thames

River Thames

The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...

, at the time part of the county of Surrey

Surrey

Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

. The building had been the final home of the Leverian Museum, housing the collection of Sir Ashton Lever

Ashton Lever

Sir Ashton Lever was an English collector of natural objects.-Biography:Ashton Lever was born in 1729 to well off titled parents who lived at Alkrington Hall...

, but had fallen into disrepair. The institution renovated it to include a large lecture hall capable of accommodating 500 people, and a galleried library of 60' length; it opened on the 1st May 1808. Other facilities in the building included committee rooms; a library with lending facilities; a reading room, chemical laboratory and contemporary philosophical apparatus. Costs were met by an initial 458 subscribers contributing thirty guinea

Guinea (British coin)

The guinea is a coin that was minted in the Kingdom of England and later in the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United Kingdom between 1663 and 1813...

s each. The library had more than 5000 volumes by 1810.

The Institution lasted only until 1823, when it was dissolved, the building thereafter being used for a variety of entertainment ventures until 1855, when it was put to ordinary business use.