London’s Original School of Oriental Studies

I mentioned a while ago the various celebrations of the 90th anniversary of Lao She’s arrival in London to teach Mandarin at the School of Oriental Studies (SOS). The SOS was the forerunner of today’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) now part of the University of London and much expanded. Lao She however taught at SOS, which had been founded in 1916 at 2 Finsbury Circus, close by Liverpool Street Station, in what had been the building of the London Institution. It’s creation was originally a rather imperialistic project to better equip Britain to run its empire and also to compete with similar institutions in Paris, Berlin and St Petersburg. It remained at the SOS until 1938 when “African” was added. There’s more on Lao She’s time at SOS in the book Lao She in London…and here are some pictures of the old building (which still remains on Finsbury Circus and is now offices).

2 Finsbury Circus while still the London Institution

Upper picture is of SOS on Finsbury Circus, lower picture is the UCL building

The SOS building looking across the gardens at Finsbury Circus – the gardens still exist though are mostly a building site at the moment due to the Crossrail construction programme

An earlier shot of the building

Students reading Chinese in the old SOS library