Commonwealth Education Trust
The Commonwealth Education Trust was a registered charity established in 2007 as the successor trust to the Commonwealth Institute. The trust focuses on primary and secondary education and the training of teachers and invests on educational products and services to achieve both a beneficial and a financial reward to fund future charitable initiatives.
History
The Commonwealth Institute was an educational and cultural organisation promoting the Commonwealth of Nations that was based in Kensington, London. It was established, as the Imperial Institute, by royal charter from Queen Victoria in 1888 on Imperial Institute Road. Its name was changed to the Commonwealth Institute in 1958 and it moved to Kensington High Street in 1962. By statute, the operations were the responsibility of a minister of state from 1902 to 2003 and the property occupied for the purposes of the Institute, and of the same name, was held separately by Trustees as a charity asset. In 1999, prior to the end of the statutory regime, arrangements were made for both the property and the operations to be transferred to a company limited by guarantee also called the Commonwealth Institute. The members were the representatives to the United Kingdom of all countries of the Commonwealth, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs on behalf of Her Majesty's Government, the Commonwealth Secretary-General, and four independent British citizens.The organisation in corporate form proved not to be viable and in 2002 the members resolved to close the operations and sell the property which was too costly for the charity to maintain. Following this it was put into liquidation and the net proceeds were vested by the members of the company in a successor registered charity, The Commonwealth Education Trust is now based at New Zealand House in Central London. The property on Kensington High Street closed in 2004 and the name Commonwealth Institute is no longer associated with it. After an £80 million redevelopment the site became the home of the Design Museum, opening in late 2016.
The Imperial Institute
The Imperial Institute was established in 1888 to hold and apply the property and assets arising from the contributions given almost exclusively by private citizens from across the Empire in a nationwide collection conceived by the then Prince of Wales in 1886 to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887. No funding was given by Her Majesty's Government. It had defined purposes which had a primary emphasis on the exhibition of collections to showcase the various countries' industrial and commercial products and development; and included industrial intelligence gathering and dissemination; the promotion of technical and commercial education; and the furtherance of colonization.The Imperial Institute building was opened in 1893 by Queen Victoria. The Institute's early activities are detailed in its journals. It had a department of commercial intelligence and an active scientific and practical research department from 1895 which was principally engaged in research that supported the industrial and commercial development of the natural products and resources of the dominions and colonies.
The building proved too large for the institute's needs and when HMG wished to find a home for the University of London, a transfer of leases was agreed in 1899 under which the institute assigned its 999-year lease to the Commissioners of Works, who contemporaneously sub-let back to it approximately half of the building, free of rent and rates and with the benefit of various communal services including maintenance, heating and lighting. The transaction also included a capital payment and in later years was portrayed as a gratuitous act of rescue by HMG, however while the institute had an unencumbered property asset of such substance and value and the power under its charter to borrow on the security of such assets, it was not at risk financially.
The Board of Trade became interested in the commercial and industrial intelligence that had been developed by the institute, and advanced the view that the interests of both the government of the United Kingdom and the institute could be best served if the purposes of both bodies were merged, with an indispensable condition of the proposed transfer being that "the buildings and funds of the Imperial Institute must not be employed for the general purposes of the State". This was effected by the ', with the then Prince of Wales remaining as president of the institute. The building and endowment fund set up from the initial collection were recognised as charity assets which were consequently vested in its trustees. With its president as trustee and also as the responsible minister, the Board of Trade was required to fulfil the purposes of the institute, which remained unchanged.
Departmental and ministerial responsibility was transferred to the Secretary of State for the Colonies by the ' to reflect the development of administrative responsibility that had occurred since 1907. More comprehensive changes were made with the ' after a substantial enquiry into the activities of the institute, whose findings were considered at the Imperial Economic Conference of 1923. Its purposes were reconfigured with a change in prominence from the exhibition galleries, to the promotion of "the commercial industrial and educational interests of the British Empire".
Recommendations made by the Commonwealth Scientific Conference in 1946 and political changes influencing trade and resulting in the UK and 22 other countries signing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, effective on 1 January 1948, led to the Treasury deciding to distribute the activities of the Institute. By the Transfer of Functions Order 1949 and the Imperial Institute Order 1949, the management of the institute was passed to the Department of Education and its purposes were redefined to retain responsibility for the galleries and its other educational work, but to have no further involvement in development and trade: a change in focus which made the work of the Institute less important for many of the member countries.
The Imperial Institute was housed in a substantial and architecturally noted building of the same name on Imperial Institute Road, which ran between Exhibition Road and Queen's Gate in South Kensington, from 1893. The building was designed by Thomas Edward Collcutt and built by John Mowlem & Co from 1887 to 1894; and was paid for almost entirely by public subscription. Originally, it had three copper-roofed Renaissance-style towers, but a single 85-metre tower, Queen's Tower, is all that remains of the Imperial Institute after demolition in the 1950s and 1960s to make way for the expansion of Imperial College.
As the trustees of the Imperial Institute were required by the Imperial Institute Act 1925 to hold the institute buildings for the purposes of the act, it was determined that a new bill would be required to allow for the buildings to be demolished and the Imperial Institute to be rehoused. This was effected by the ', which included a name change for the institute to the Commonwealth Institute, to recognise the political developments with the creation of the Commonwealth of Nations in 1949 and the increasing number of countries that had been granted independence and become members of the Commonwealth. At that time the responsible minister was the Minister of Education. The act also detailed the new site and parameters of size and cost for the new building; and stated that expenses incurred by the trustees relating to the conditions of the lease of other net expenses incurred by the Minister of Education in connection with the Commonwealth Institute were to be "paid out of moneys provided by Parliament". This reflected the arrangements made in 1899 under which the institute was granted a fully repairing lease in exchange for releasing, at the request of the government, approximately one half of its building for the use of the University of London.
The Commonwealth Institute 1962–2015
In 1962, the Commonwealth Institute moved to a distinctive copper-roofed building on Kensington High Street, immediately south of Holland Park. The building, designed by Robert Matthew Johnson-Marshall & Partners, was opened on Tuesday, 6 November 1962, by Queen Elizabeth II. It was open to the public and contained a permanent exhibition about the nations of the Commonwealth, which was designed to inform the public "how the rest of the Commonwealth lives". The Commemorative Handbook for the occasion of the opening interpreted the Institute's purpose as "to foster the interests of the Commonwealth by information and education services designed to promote among all its people a wider knowledge of one another and a greater understanding of the Commonwealth itself". In addition to the exhibition, the Institute ran an important library of Commonwealth literature, and hosted cultural and educational events.In 1967 responsibility for the operation of the Commonwealth Institute was transferred to the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs, and then in 1968 to the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. Various problems with the building had come to light since its completion, and in 1982 a total cost estimate of £312,000 was reported for recommended maintenance work, with the most important structural maintenance item being the waterproofing of the roof. Some work was approved, but the roof continued to leak, and by 1988 it was reported to the FCO that £700,000 was needed for the building to be structurally safe, with internal and essential modernisations being "likely to cost £5m". Later that year the building was given a Grade II* listing with associated restrictions on any building works or development possibilities. In 1989 a further estimate of £10m was given for more extensive refurbishment. With a background of high maintenance costs, the activities continued, but with an increasing emphasis on revenue generation, and various proposals were explored for commercial development of the site.
In 1993, the FCO announced that funding would cease completely in 1996, although this deadline was extended until 1999. Responsibility of the work of the Institute and ownership of the building was transferred to a company, the members of which were all the countries of the Commonwealth and which was to be funded for three years by the United Kingdom. This failed to attract further funds, and in 2002 the countries decided it would cease its activities and the building would be sold. Funding of £3,996,435 was also provided for specified works to the building incorporating comprehensive repairs to the roof and some required access works. The arrangements also included an indemnity in favour of the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs as responsible Minister. The company continued as a charitable trust managed on behalf of the members: the High Commissioners to London of the Commonwealth Nations, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, and the four lay members. The statutes governing the Institute were not repealed until 2003 at which time the remainder of the original Victorian endowment fund was also released to the company without restrictions.
By April 2002, the financial model of the Institute as a corporate entity had been recognised as "not sustainable". A revised plan was immediately put in place, and all funded activities were closed by the end of November. In a general meeting in late 2002, the members agreed to the disposal of the building and to the application of the proceeds to advancing education in the Commonwealth.
The institute held a large number of ethnographic objects and an art collection that had been acquired during the period from the opening of the Imperial Institute. From 1958 until 2003, these were under control of the responsible Minister under the legislation. Following the repeal of the legislation in 2003, some of the exhibits were returned to member countries; approximately 11,810 remaining items from the main areas of the collection were donated to the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum in Bristol, which itself closed in 2009, amid allegations of the unauthorized sale of a significant number of items from its collection. The remainder are now held under trust by the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery. In July 2004, after a progressive run off period honouring advance bookings, the Conference and Events Centre closed. This venture had been the cornerstone of the 1999 business plan, but the maintenance and running costs of the building were high; additionally, by the time of closure the recently renovated roof had begun to leak persistently, and significant expenditure was required to comply with further health and safety requirements.
Various possibilities for the future of the building had been explored with advisers, including a public marketing campaign in March 2003. The complexity of dealing with the protected status of the building and the grounds affected the value and the terms on which the property could be sold. An application for the review of the listing was made in November 2004. This caused concern that it might lead to the demolition of the building. In the event, it resulted in a small but very important relaxation of the listing in respect of the administration wing of the building, which, when combined with a relaxation of use in relation to the frontage, meant that for the first time a viable development of the whole site could be envisaged. After creating a development plan that was favourably received by the local authority, the company finally achieved a sale in 2007, following which the Commonwealth Education Trust was formed as a successor charity, and the Commonwealth Institute was put into liquidation.
The professional fees for the complex processes leading to the sale of the building required to ensure that the trustees met their responsibilities: to optimize the value received; for ensuring the security of the pension arrangements; and providing full government service-level redundancy payments for the former staff, cost about £7m.
The liquidation proved to be long and complex, and was only completed in 2015 after a High Court hearing settled a number of uncertainties associated with the manner in which the assets had come into the hands of the company from the responsible Minister and the Commonwealth Institute Trustees prior to the repeal of the legislation in 2003.