Thank you to all those who contributed to the Tomorrow’s Royal Campaign which has achieved its target of £2,500,000 and is now closed to new donations. Please see the Support Us page for current opportunities to show support for the Society.
In June 2019, The Royal Philatelic Society London moved from 41 Devonshire Place in Marylebone, which it had occupied since 1925, into temporary accommodation, and then in early September 2019, into 15 Abchurch Lane, in the City of London.
We needed to refurbish the building at 15 Abchurch Lane to high modern standards within its historic setting. Much of this work will remain unseen, with services like electricity, water, air conditioning, access, IT, and conveniences all renewed and modernised. Below ground level a former kitchen and restaurant have been converted and now provide a climate-controlled library, as well as a secure store for books, archives, and collections.
When the Tomorrow's Royal fundraising appeal was launched at the auction of Dr Paul Ramsay’s hand painted envelopes on 8th-9th May 2018 the target was set at £2,500,000. We asked everyone, including our members all over the world, to consider what they could afford to do to recognise what The Royal Philatelic Society London means to them. Many very generous donations followed and many members took out standing orders for monthly and quarterly payments.
By 1st June 2019 we were able to announce that £1 million had been raised. In the 1st December 2019 issue of The London Philatelist, it was announced that with the generous donation of £300,000 over three years, by the Jeremy and John Sacher Charitable Trust, the Society's Library was to be named the John Sacher Library. Thus we reached nearly 70% of the target before the official opening in November 2019.
The pandemic that closed the building for nigh on a year might have stopped most giving for a time, but the surplus from the Stockholmia 2019 event came in at £56,000 and a matched fund generously seeded by Vince King FRPSL of Texas assisted. The fund was then £750,000 short of its target. The Spear Charitable Trust offered to finish the job, and donated this vast amount before the end of 2020. This is the largest cash amount ever gifted to the Royal and with this immense largesse the target was reached. In recognition of this gift the Society's museum has been named The Spear Museum of Philatelic History.
Thank you once again to all those who have so generously enabled us to fit out our new premises at Abchurch Lane. If you haven't yet had a chance to visit, please do so and you will be sure of a warm welcome. Those donors who wished to be so noted are recorded on our donor boards.