2 OCTOBER 1964, Page 15

Expansion This is no time, it occurred to me, to

receive a document headed ,`Quintin Hogg Centenary' —but there it was, and, of course, it came from the Polytechnic; and it is not the most recent Lord Hailsham who is being honoured, but his less controversial grandfather. They are, perhaps, stretching the 'centenary' notion slightly. A hun- dred years have passed, not since the phiran- thropic Hogg was born, or died, but rather since he 'started his charitable work which later led

to the establishment of the present Polytechnic in 1882.' But if the centenary celebrations later this month are somewhat unusually based, the

current expansion programme of this institution Is impressive. When they are complete, the Poly- technic will have more than 3,500 full-time students pursuing degree-level or post-graduate courses. It is an astonishing growth from one Man's original idea of holding open-air Bible lasses under the Adelphi Arches, and from the Ragged School' which these developed into. Almost the most pleasing thing about the new Plans is that a group of buildings is to be erected on the site at present occupied by Luxborough Lodge. This unlovely former workhouse is at Present used as an old people's home. Its survival as such does us no credit. Its replacement by a new complex of educational buildings would en- thuse that spirit of Victorian philanthropy which