RMS celebrates 50 years at 'Snowflake House'

RMS staff have been celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Society's move to 'Snowflake House' in Oxford.

The premises, at 37/38 St Clements, were acquired in December 1974, and have served as the RMS's central administrative hub ever since. In addition to office space for staff, the building also includes a library and meeting room.

Staff enjoyed a slice of cake on Monday (2 December) to mark the occasion, and posed for photos outside the famous blue door.

"Most momentous move"

The Society initially moved from London to Oxford in 1967, renting rooms at Canterbury House on Cowley Road. For a short period in the early 1970s, offices were taken up at Clarendon House on Cornmarket Street, before the purchase in 1974 of 'Snowflake House' in St Clements.

Gerard L'E Turner's definitive history of the RMS, God Bless the Microscope, describes the event as the Society's "most momentous move to its first freehold premises in a large, Edwardian house in St Clements, just east of Magdalen Bridge, popularly known as Snowflake House."

Read more about the history of the RMS