The Egypt Exploration Society has been supporting and promoting Egyptian heritage since its foundation in 1882. Over that time, we have surveyed, excavated, and recorded more than 150 different sites and monuments across the Nile valley and shared the results of that work in over 350 publications. Today, we engage interested audiences around the world with an exciting event programme and offer training and development to the next generation of researchers.

In our 140th year, the Society committed to its most ambitious project yet: the transformation of its premises, the home of British Egyptology. These premises will be fully accessible, innovative, as well as financially and environmentally sustainable.

The Plans

Retaining our quiet mews location in central Bloomsbury, a short walk from the British Museum and UCL, this transformation will provide a friendly centre for those wanting to discover more about Egypt’s unique past. A fully accessible ground floor Learning Hub will offer flexible event space to welcome school groups as well as opportunities for virtual and physical engagement with EES collections. The Society’s Libraries, as well as its main office will be available on this floor.

A new atrium with platform lift will take guests to a new Papyrology Centre on the first floor housing the Society’s own Oxyrhynchus Papyri Collection and cartonnage. Relocated from their current home, this Centre will mean that all EES collections will be available under one roof for the first time. Providing unparalleled opportunities for students and researchers, the papyri and cartonnage collections will offer new partnerships for the Society and will be displayed to visitors in a new display space on the ground floor.

The new Learning Hub will provide flexible event space to welcome school groups as well as offer digital and physical engagement with EES collections. 

A proposed roof extension will provide storage space for the Society’s internationally significant archive collections and a Meeting Room overlooking an educational Roof Garden. This outdoor space will offer a moment for quiet reflection and learning, where stories of Egypt’s historic links to the UK will be explored as well as the natural heritage of Egypt’s ecologically threatened north Delta.

We aim to provide a centre for lifelong learning and engagement with Egyptian cultural heritage available for everyone to enjoy.

We’re delighted to be working with Studio Becoming on these plans and expect to receive planning permission in mid-2023. Studio Becoming have developed these plans with passivhaus principles helping us to achieve our targets for net-Zero Carbon operations. The plans include solar panels and heat pumps to reduce our fuel consumption which will also help the Society to combat rising fuel costs. A two-bedroom duplex apartment, to replace the current small flat, will offers some financial sustainability to support the Society’s running costs and charitable work.

Get involved

If you would like to talk to us about contributing to these exciting plans and being part of the legacy of the EES, then please get in touch! You can reach EES Development Manager, Dr Edward (Ed) Scrivens, at [email protected], or EES Director, Dr Carl Graves, on [email protected]. We look forward to talking with you and ‘Building the Future’ together. Thank you. 

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