Filling The Room With Smoke

FILLING THE ROOM
WITH SMOKE

Extracts from the Lit&Phil
Recommendations Book

The Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon
Tyne (the Lit & Phil) was founded in 1793 as a means of
communicating information and intelligence of the latest
developments in science (natural philosophy) and literature. It

began collecting a library immediately, papers were read at
monthly meetings, and more structured courses of lectures
were introduced in 1803. It moved into its present building,
which was purpose built, in 1825. The building was extended
in the 1880s to enlarge the main library on the first floor, and

new rooms were added on the ground floor below a smoking
room (now the silence room) and a gentleman’s lavatory, later
(1910) extended into part of the smoking room. Ladies rooms
were added at first floor level around the same time, when,
presumably, the outside lavatories fell into disuse.

There are references to members’ suggestions from the
earliest days but the record is very inconsistent through the
nineteenth century. However, the Society possesses the
recommendations book starting from 1907, and its successor

(from 1946) is still current. These provide a fascinating insight
into the concerns and pre-occupations of members over the
last century. Some have hardly changed but others are very
much of their time and now seem quaint, and some would be
considered eccentric at any time.

The Smoking Room

Many of the comments in the books are about the smoking
room and smoking. One of the first (Oct 1907) provides an
unexpected image of at least one Lit & Phil member

Some person has been spitting upon the floor of the
smoke room, evidently trying to use the waste-paper
basket as a spitoon, but with limited success. This is
a most objectionable habit, of which one hardly
expects to find traces in the rooms of this Society.
May I suggest that a notice be posted, suitably
worded.

The presumption of gentility is a recurring theme, and is
surely the rationale behind the committee’s response

The Committee do not think that a general notice
would be desirable.

A couple of decades later, when smoking became acceptable
for women, requests to allow it in the ladies’ room were turned
down. Ladies who wished to smoke had no option but use the
smoking room to the consternation of one of the regular
habitués

Now that the Smoking Room is being invaded by
the fair sex, I suggest that a "Silence" notice should
be exhibited both within and without the screen.

The committee wisely rejected the suggestion, and the
originator should have known better. The response follows
immediately in the book

That there are some noises worse than those of
feminine voices & that the society should ask those
members who smoke not to fall asleep in the
smoking room.

Some time in the 1960s the smoking room was changed into
the reference/silence room, and the smokers moved upstairs
into the main library. More recently the Society was not
spared the conflict between the respective rights of smokers
and non-smokers, and after something of a “recommendations
war” the committee finally banned smoking in 2004. This is
probably the last word on the matter

Might not the provision of SNUFF at our common
table serve both to conciliate smokers who regret
the present ban and to conciliate other members
who feel that this emphatically is no time to be
following "current trends"? The cost of this modest
encouragement to the spirit of independence and
anti-Puritanism would be cheerfully met by me.

Gentlemen’s Lavatories

Complaints about tobacco fumes are nothing new, but this
comment from 1917 introduces another problem that still
sometimes causes comment the smell of the gents

I regularly find the air in the Library offensive,
particularly when the door at the south end is open
owing to fumes of stale tobacco and other odours
ascending the back staircase from the smoke-room
and the lavatory &c adjoining it and being
discharged into the Library. This should be
prevented. If it be necessary to admit air at the
south end of the Library it should be drawn from
outside, not through the basement.

The official response is interesting because it confirms that a
problem exists, but addresses the final sentence of the
recommendation rather than considering solutions to the real
problem.

On this matter, I find, Oct 17 1917 12.40 pm, the
Electric fan in Window of Lavatory is operating. It
is drawing air from the outside into the Lavatory
(W.C. and urinal). This air makes a distinct current
inwards, & finds its way through the Washing room
& eventually up the stairs into the Library, catching
on its way the smoke of the Smoking Room.

Smells seem to have been a problem at least since the
lavatories had been extended in 1910. This is from the
following year

Can some disinfectant be sprinkled in the
Gentleman's Lavatory regularly, as the flush of

water is not great & the odour frequently most
objectionable?

Evidently other uses were found for the lavatories

A box containing boot cleaning requisites would be a
great convenience in the lavatory it would also
make the present use of clothes brushes and towels
unnecessary for such purpose.

Apart from smells, more recently comments have been
concerned with changing expectations, sometimes objecting to
innovation

Could the gentlemen's wash-room be spared
perfumed soap?

Committee response

There is no accounting for taste.

More usually the recommendation is a plea to keep up with
the times

Would funds allow tissue in the * room? It tends to
be in most places these days & one grows
accustomed.

Twenty years later (1987) the matter is still unresolved

I really think it high time that you stopped
subjecting us to grease-proof paper in the …. Room,
acknowledging the everyday luxuries of late C20 life
and started supplying your clients with soft tissue-
paper. Not only is it infinitely more sympathetic to
the physiology, but can also be utilised on other
businesses, e.g. polishing one's spectacles etc.

This time there was a change, but there is evidence that
resigned acceptance of a conservative committee continued for
years afterwards, illustrated by this response in 1990

I wish to suggest that the society introduces hand
air driers into the toilets as they are more hygienic.

Some hope it took them forty years to get soft toilet
paper.

Health and Safety

An overzealous attitude to health and safety is often
considered to be a modern affliction. It is not. Many concerns
in the book are justified, and some need to be seen in the
context of the times, for example the prevalence of TB, but
sometimes any sense of proportion seems to have been lost.
The Society was very early in installing a telephone (its
number was Newcastle 12), and there are various complaints
relating to it, for example having to wait too long for
somebody to finish using it, but one member was particularly
concerned about the risks it posed to public health

I would suggest the advisability of getting antiseptic
discs for putting over the mouth-piece of the
Telephone. They are cheap, and can I think be
obtained from Jeyes' Sanitary Co. This in the
interest of public health.
(12 July 1909)
I do not think ordinary cleaning of telephone
mouth-piece is sufficient - This does not meet the
requirements of the case.
(6 August 1909)

The same year sees a similar concern about the potential risks
to health from the books, which goes beyond a simple concern
for cleanliness

The Dust of ages and millions of modern microbes
are on the tops of books in the Library particularly
in the galleries. May I suggest that the committee
see to this at once and if necessary employ outside
labour to put the books in a respectable and safe
condition.

On the other hand sometimes the comment is just about
cleanliness and tidiness

That an ash-tray be placed on each of the writing
tables in the Smoke room. People of instinctively
tidy habits - like myself - dislike putting cigarette
ends and ash on the floor.

The committee does not seem to have been impressed by such
concerns, probably because finance has always been difficult
for the Society.

Looking up at the front of the Lit & Phil from the
street, I wish to recommend that, if the top windows
are really of glass, they might be cleaned for once.

Response

Not worth the expense.

Lighting has presented problems for the library from the
beginning, and they are still not resolved satisfactorily. One
member was driven to fairly extreme lengths in 1908

Surprised to observe a member using matches to see
the titles of books on shelves. Most dangerous.
Suggest notice be exhibited prohibiting such a
practice.

Ladies’ Rooms

It may not be surprising that comments about the ladies’
rooms have a different tone to those about the other rooms.
One of the earliest appears in 1912, and at this distance it is
difficult to reconstruct its context. Does it reflect generational
differences?

As since the hanging of the mirror in the Ladies
Room, the room has degenerated into a dressing
room, might the mirror be removed, perhaps to the
passage?

Sometimes an individual takes a particular interest in one
single aspect of the Society’s facilities, and this is certainly the
case with the ladies’ rooms. This member makes her first
entry in 1919

I would like to call the attention of the committee to
the disrespectful state of the Ladies rooms
especially the carpet & tops. The dreariness of the
sitting room is beyond description, but it might be
kept clean & decently warm. I would suggest that
someone be made directly responsible for these
places.

The next time that she is moved to comment is in 1923

I again draw attention to the dirty covers in ladies'
sitting room & to the fact that the cushion covers
are not sewed up & accordingly the cushions drop
out. I suggest that some member of the staff be
made responsible for all the ladies' rooms. Their
condition is misworthy of the Lit & Phil &
complaints are numerous though they may not
appear in this book.

She is still unhappy the following year

The condition of the ladies' rooms is not improved.
The sitting room is still dirty & insufficiently
warmed, & there are two large holes in the carpet.
The whole place looks forlorn & neglected. Can no-
one be made responsible so that this state of things
may be remedied, and some little comfort be
obtainable by the many women members who use
the rooms. I have met no-one who does not
complain.

Things are still not right a year later

I would like to suggest that new catches be put on
the doors of the ladies sitting room & dressing room
as at present it is impossible to shut them. Also that
the covers of the cushions be sewn up both for
tidiness & convenience. Also that requests be put up
to switch off lights & to refrain from banging doors.

One of its problems is that the room is built onto the side of
the building, and is in effect hanging in the air, so that it
needs efficient heating. This was a problem as recently as
2012 until it was resolved when an air-lock was cleared from
the hot water pipe. Some of the other problems, like so many,
seem to result from the straightened circumstances of the Lit
& Phil.

The Great War

The comments in the book during the years of the Great War
are little different from the others with a few exceptions, most

notably in 1916, when quite aggressive anti-German
sentiment surfaces

It is suggested that the Committee cause a ballot of
the members to be taken (similar to that in
operation for the election of their own body) to
ascertain whether it is the wish of the members to
allow Germans, naturalised or otherwise to remain
members of this Society.

The official response, which, as usual, laconically maintains
the status quo, provoked some bitter responses

Not thought desirable. [in another hand] by those
who wish to trade with Germans. [signed by] JT
Dunn [added] Knight of the Iron Cross.

A further comment is added at the bottom of the page

After the latest cold blooded murder I think it is
time for the Committee to re-consider previous
decision.

A brief recommendation after the war has ended provides
evidence of another way in which the Lit & Phil had
responded to the anti-German feeling

Restoration to the shelves for reviews of German
sources of information Deutsche Rundschau.

Support for the war effort is apparent in the committee’s
response to a comment in its early months (September 1914)

That a notice be put up requesting ladies to refrain
from knitting and crocheting during lectures as it
distracts the attention of the members.

Response

Interference considered inappropriate at present.

Such toleration did not last beyond the armistice, and a more
forceful recommendation appears dated December 1920

We, the undersigned, strongly urge the Committee
to take immediate steps to effectively stop knitting,
crocheting or other needlework during lectures. To
the listener in the vicinity of those who do so, it is
very irritating & prevents the full enjoyment of the
lectures while it must appear as an act of great
discourtesy to the lecturer himself. We wish to point
out that the reasons which have made the practice
of knitting &c permissible during the War no longer
exist, & we consider that its continuance is wholly
inconsistent with the dignity of such an institution
as the Lit & Phil Society.

Noise and Other Irritations

Knitting was not the only source of irritation for members.
The commonest recommendations, as could be expected, deal

with noise. Some are mild and constructive, such as this from
1909

It would greatly promote peace and quietness if all
the chairs were fitted with steel castors obtainable
@ 6d per set of four.

Others are rather less measured

That the fiend operating the vacuum cleaner be
restricted to the hours between 7 pm & 9 am. If
necessary, for such night work, pay him double
wages per hour. Have only been in the Smoking
Room about 6 times in the past year for a quiet read
& smoke, & on each occasion he has been at his
volume producing operations & I believe gloating
thereon.

Heating has often been a cause for complaint, even in days
when people were not conditioned to central heating, but, as
the response to the following comment indicates, it is probably
impossible to please everybody

May I suggest that the lecture room be less
overheated, particularly in winter when people have
thicker clothing on.

Response

Most complaints are of the opposite character. The
matter has the committee's attention.

Did the committee seize on this opportunity to save on the
heating bill?

While there are many suggestions about possible speakers
and topics for lectures there are relatively few complaints
about practical issues, apart from concern about overcrowding
in the years around 1920. One exception barely hides its
author’s annoyance

May I suggest that our present lantern operator
have a few lessons by an expert on the management
of the lantern. I was present at Commander Copes
lecture on Nov 10 & at that given by Mr EG
Richardson last evening & the slides were very
badly shown. The operator does not seem able to see
when a slide is in focus and has not even
elementary ideas as to how to centre his light. I
know in the late Mr Man we had an expert but the
present operator's attempts could hardly be called
amateurish. Let us at least keep the Lit & Phil
exhibitions at a moderate level.

As usual the recommendation received a calm and measured
response

There was a defect in the lantern which has been
adjusted.

Books

As could be expected there are probably more
recommendations about books than anything else, and there
is a history going back to the earliest days of the Society of
disputes about the appropriateness of its acquisitions. The
appearance on its shelves of Byron’s Don Juan in 1819 caused
uproar, and it had to be withdrawn, and it was not until 1891
that novels were admitted. Delicate sensibilities were still
being outraged into the twentieth century

I beg to suggest that George Moore's "Confessions of
a Young Man" be withdrawn from general
circulation - a book of low tone and decadent type
throughout.

Even apparently harmless additions to the collections could
cause offense

As a member of the Literary and Philosophical
Society I protest against the purchase of a book
entitled "Club Bridge" by A.Dunn. Surely a book
about a game of cards cannot be describerd as either
"literary" or "philosophical".

In 1923 there seems to have been resentment about the
apparently preferential access to books that some members
enjoyed.

It is suggested that the practice of issuing books to
certain selected persons, from the librarian's desk,
before they are placed in the trays be discontinued.

Response

These books are sent on approval for the Committee
to look at with a view to purchase and do not belong
to the society.

It is not possible to tell for certain, but there is just a hint that
some committee member(s) might have been abusing their
position.

Books referred to above are not those sent on
approval, but novels which have been on loan & are
handed out again from the librarian's desk, instead
of being placed in the trays with the rest. Complaint
stands.

Occasional comments about the ill treatment of the Society’s
books and magazines are not uncommon, but this, from 1959,
conveys a sense of indignation that is quite exceptional

Someone has crumpled Vogue!