Rituals are procedures that indirectly help the organisation achieve its goals—by guiding behaviour and cultivating allegiance. We describe them using evolvable scripts, which are concise and easily accessible units of procedure. We show them here for our members and others who might be interested.
Space
Structure of our space
We occupy the entire second floor of the Royal Institution, apart from a room next to the kitchen, and the third-floor space above the Rumford Room. ❧ In general, our second-floor rooms go from noisy on the north side, where the Old Post Room is, to quiet on the south side. Everyone has their main office on this floor. ❧ Our third-floor space is a quiet zone for occasional use—members shouldn’t spend most of their time there. ❧ Our two public rooms are the Old Post Room, for coffee, drinks and discussion, and the §Tyndall Theatre for talks and meetings.
Allocation of space
We allocate office space according to three principles. ❧ First, we mix together scientists and staff as well as people in different fields. This is one of our most important routines, because it keeps us aligned, helps us spot links between fields, and impedes the drift towards bureaucracy. ❧ Second, different people want different things in their work environment, be it a sofa, a window or a quiet space. We try, as much as possible, to satisfy each person’s preferences. ❧ Third, we take into account seniority in determining who has their own office.
Old Post Room
The heart of the Institute is the Old Post Room. It serves several purposes. ❧ First, it’s a coffeehouse. Members gather there for coffee and banter and to learn what others are up to. ❧ Second, it’s a sandpit. At our triptych blackboard, scientists and staff share ideas and get unstuck. ❧ Third, it’s a bar. Members and visitors can spontaneously end the day with a glass, and every Friday at 5 we gather for our §Friday Evening Drinks. ❧ Fourth, it’s a progress centre. We track our discovery, soft power and fundraising at the top of the three blackboards.
Tyndall Theatre
The Tyndall Theatre is our dedicated space for talks. It seats 75 people, with 60 Edwardian chapel chairs, two benches, and 10 dining chairs in a nearby room, if needed. ❧ The Tyndall Theatre has two blackboards: a triptych blackboard painted onto the wall and a portable blackboard which stands vertically against the wall. There is also a projector and screen. The screen is pulled down with a wood and brass hook. ❧ The room is used for talks, meetings and group lunches. When it is not needed for these things, LIMS members can use it for other purposes.
Balcony
Our second-floor balcony is six feet by 49 feet and has a garden and tables and chairs. It can be used by all members and visitors and is accessible via our east-facing offices. ❧ At the summer solstice, the balcony catches the sun from 8:30 to 1:30, and some sun can be had in the three months before and after. ❧ When it’s warm outside, we sometimes hold our Friday drinks on the balcony. This has the advantage that the number of social interactions scales linearly with the number of people, rather than the square root afforded by ordinary 2D rooms.
Balcony garden
Our balcony boasts a substantial collection of flowers, vines, shrubs, conifers and fruit trees. These include roses, tulips, lilies and orchids; edible plants such as herbs, tomatoes and chilies; and exotic trees such as ginkgo biloba, Japanese maple, Lebanese cedar and California redwood. ❧ The plants are kept in terracotta pots, with smaller plants in glazed bonsai pots. To maintain variety, we try not to keep more than a few of any one species of plant. ❧ During the winter, we keep most of our plants indoors on tables next to west-facing windows.
Design
Interiors
We believe the design of our rooms in the Royal Institution should reflect the extraordinary legacy of discovery that has taken place within them. ❧ In a way that is sympathetic with the building’s past, we buy our furniture secondhand, mostly from Lots Road Auctions, which sells several hundred items each week. ❧ To make our Grade I-listed space more suitable for theory, rather than the experimental work that filled most of its history, we work with Donald Insall Associates, a firm of architects that has restored some of Britain’s most iconic buildings.
Logo and motto
A description of our logo and a pdf version of it can be found here. It is based on a carving from the 18th-century fireplace in the seminar room of our former building at 22 South St in Mayfair. The logo features a classical lamp with snakes on either side. Carried by Diogenes during the day in search of an honest man, the lamp symbolizes knowledge and learning. ❧ The motto of the Institute, which is written on the logo, is “Truth, Beauty”. These words refer to the idea that mathematical beauty is a strangely effective indicator of physical truth.
Showcasing our papers
For our most prominent published research papers, we frame the first page and hang it on the wall of our main corridor. Showcasing our discoveries reinforces what constitutes success and recognises those who achieve it. ❧ In general we showcase papers with at least 1.6 SNIP points. But we sometimes reduce the threshold for iconic papers or papers with a single author, or skip papers with too many non-LIMS authors. ❧ We use a 20 mm black stained wood frame and a 30 mm mount, with a mount opening of 188 mm ⨉ 288 mm. We order the frames from eframe.co.uk.
Drinks and dinners
Friday drinks
One of our most popular rituals is our weekly Friday drinks. This starts at 5 o’clock in the Old Post Room, marked by a strike of our gong. The point of Friday drinks is three-fold. ❧ First, it’s for members of the Institute to catch up informally. Second, it’s to build relationships with others outside the Institute who could be important to it. Third, it’s to strengthen ties with Royal Institution staff, who sometimes join us. ❧ Members occasionally invite friends, family or plus-ones, bearing in mind the same guest shouldn’t be invited too often.
Christmas party
Our Christmas party is at 6 o’clock on the first Friday of December. It is held in the Old Post and Faraday rooms. The party is for members of the Institute and people who have supported it, or might do so. Members can also invite special guests, from collaborators to plus-ones, bearing in mind that any guest should improve the party. ❧ Our tree, an 11-foot Nordmann fir, is kept in the Faraday Room in a base with water. Tree decorations are stored in the Tyndall south cupboard. We are always on the lookout for tree decorations with a mathematical theme.
St Scholastica’s Feast
The London Institute was incorporated on 10 February. This is the Feast Day of St Scholastica, a 6th century nun who is indelibly linked with evenings filled with conversation that continues into the night. ❧ Each year on a Friday near that date, our scientists and staff and distinguished guests come together for St Scholastica’s Feast. It is a formal dinner to mark our anniversary and our belief in the value of community. ❧ Dinner is held in the Faraday Room and dessert in the Bragg Room, followed by combination in the Old Post Room. Dress is black tie.
Dinner
Dinners are held in the Faraday Room or Bragg Room or both. ❧ The table is lit by candles. We do not use table cloths except to cover pop-up tables. We provide a seating plan, with double-sided place cards, and place seats at the table ends to ensure periodic boundaries. ❧ We use lamps and sconces rather than overhead lights and keep the lighting low. ❧ After dinner, we retire to the Old Post Room to talk informally. The dinner wines are brought through, and whisky and Sauternes are introduced. We do not serve coffee or tea, and there is no set end time.
Dessert
For some dinners, like St Scholastica’s Feast, we have dessert in a separate room with a new seating plan. “Dessert” in this instance refers to the second sitting, rather than a specific course. ❧ At the table are fruit and cheese. We pass round port and claret (both decanted) and Sauternes, clockwise in that order. ❧ After dinner, we retire to the Old Post Room to talk informally. All three wines are brought through, and whisky is introduced. We do not serve coffee or tea. There is no fixed end time; rather, people stay as long as they see fit.
Food and drink
Coffee and tea
We stock two kinds of coffee. One is Lavazza Qualità Rossa coffee beans, which are used in our espresso machine in the Old Post Room. The other is Lavazza Qualità Rossa ground coffee, for cafetières. ❧ We stock one kind of tea, Fortnum & Mason’s Earl Grey. ❧ The coffee and tea are kept in storage jars in the Old Post Room, with additional stock in the Old Post pantry. We order 500 tea bags and 10 kg of coffee at a time, and never run below two months’ supply. ❧ Mugs are kept on the Old Post bookshelf and cups and saucers in the Old Post pantry.
Wine
We stock two kinds of white wine and two kinds of red wine. All of the wines are French or Italian and come in corked bottles. One of the reds is a claret. ❧ As a rule of thumb, the average price of a bottle of wine is 50% more than the cost of six bottles of beer. The whites cost slightly less than this, and the reds slightly more. ❧ Four bottles of red are kept in the Old Post pantry and four bottles of white in the Old Post refrigerator. Extra bottles are in the Bragg cupboard. We order at least three months’ supply of our four wines at a time.
Other drinks
We stock three kinds of beer: Pilsner Urquell, Sierra Nevada and Duvel. All come in 330 ml or 355 ml glass bottles. ❧ We also stock orange juice in plastic bottles, Coke and Diet Coke in 330 ml glass bottles, and Harrogate still water and San Pellegrino sparkling water, both in 500 ml plastic bottles. ❧ These are all kept in the Old Post refrigerator, with further stock in the Bragg closets. ❧ We bulk order at least three months of stock at a time from wholesale suppliers (apart from orange juice), and we never run below one month of available stock.
Snacks
We keep a supply of Kirkland mixed nuts and Kettle salted crisps in the Old Post Room. The nuts are kept in bowls and a storage jar, and small bags of crisps are kept in a wooden box. Extra stock for both is in the Bragg cupboard. ❧ For special occasions, we serve Fortnum and Mason Biscuit Selection cookies, also stored in the Bragg cupboard. ❧ We keep fresh fruit in a bowl in the Old Post Room. Each week, we order apples, bananas and tangerines, according to demand. ❧ Our store of chocolate, paused because of tremendous demand, will return in 2025.
Mugs
All of our mugs are from universities and scientific research institutes from around the world. Our collection, which stands at over 60 mugs, is kept on the bookshelf in the Old Post Room. (Our cups and saucers are in the kitchen and Old Post pantry.) ❧ We invite others to add to our collection, especially from research institutions outside of Britain and America, where our coverage is weak. ❧ Our older mugs are not dishwasher safe, so we wash them by hand. ❧ We also have a burgeoning collection of university shot glasses in the Old Post pantry.
Glasses and china
We have three kinds of glasses, all made by Arcoroc: Savoie 240 ml wine glasses, Savoie 170 ml champagne flutes, and Cervoise 380 ml beer glasses. These are kept in the Old Post pantry, with more in the kitchen. ❧ We use a type of Doulton bone china created by Bruce Oldfield, which is light blue and white with gilt trim. There is an extensive supply of this china available second-hand, so we can easily buy more when needed. We have at least 30 each of dinner plates, side plates, bowls, cups and saucers. These are kept in the Old Post pantry and kitchen.
Drinks parties
For drinks parties we use the Old Post and Faraday rooms or just the Old Post Room, depending on size. ❧ The rooms are lit by lamps, not overhead lights. We hardly rearrange the furniture—the quirks of a maintained living space add to the intimacy of interaction. There is no set end time. ❧ Drinks are kept in ice in our silver drinks buckets. One for wine and one for beer go on the Old Post trestle table, with red wine nearby. If the Faraday Room is used, the same setup is placed at the back. ❧ For larger parties we hire two people to serve and clean up.
Drinks quantities
At events we serve one of our red wines, one of our white wines, our three beers, and elderflower water. At special events, such as our Christmas party and St Scholastica’s Feast, we also serve champagne. ❧ To estimate quantities, we use the following rule of thumb. For an event of n people, we provide n/4 bottles of white, n/5 bottles of red, 2 n/3 Pilsners, 2 n/3 Sierras, n/3 Duvels and n/6 bottles of elderflower. If champagne is served, we provide n/3 bottles. ❧ Still water is laid out in our usual 500 ml bottles (n/4) for guests to help themselves.