RICS at 150
The foundations of today's RICS were set in 1868 when 20 surveyors met at the Westminster Palace Hotel. They appointed a sub-committee that would draw up resolutions, bye-laws and regulations in order to establish a professional association representing surveyors and the growing property profession.
On 15 June 1868 the group, now expanded to 49 members, met at the Westminster Palace Hotel to approve the resolutions and elect the first council. John Clutton was elected as the first president of the Institution of Surveyors. Offices were then leased at 12 Great George Street, our headquarters to this day.
To celebrate our 150-year history, we've gone through our archive and found 150 RICS stories. Many will be published on this site, others will be broadcast across our social channels.
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Quantity surveying & construction
Comment 
Annette Howard, 08 Aug 2017
For discussion
A look at the progress of women in the surveying profession from the 1920s through to the present day.
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Quantity surveying & construction
News 23 Jan 2017
For discussion
The year was 1868 and 53 gentlemen from the property profession met at the Westminster Palace Hotel in London. The main agenda item was a proposal to set up a formal association to be referred to as the ‘Institution of Surveyors’.
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Quantity surveying & construction
Comment 11 Jan 2017
For discussion
Following on from previous articles on RICS Presidents from 100 years ago, our president from 1916–1917 proved to be a very different personality from his predecessor, Mr Hanson. Indeed, not only was he the first president to hail from Ireland, but he also seems to have been very active in the politics of that country at the time.
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Quantity surveying & construction
Comment 
Cathy Linacre, 13 Nov 2016
For discussion
Leopold Reginald Hargreaves, known as "Rex", was one of 66 chartered surveyors killed during the Battle of the Somme 100 years ago in 1916. What makes this story stand out from other similar stories I've researched? Rex was the son of Alice Liddell, who the character of Alice in the literary classic 'Alice in Wonderland' was based.
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Each year, RICS’ Governing Council elects a President, a President-elect and a Senior Vice President. The term for these positions is one year, with the holders taking office in June/July.
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Estate agency
Comment Cathy Linacre, 04 Oct 2016
For discussion
I came across a wonderful article from 1980 in the old RICS journal 'Chartered Surveyor'. In it, Partner at John P Dickins and Sons Peter Leigh imagines what "buying a house in the year 2005" might be like. What did he get right? What are we doing now and what was wide of the mark? Is there anything he imagined that you’d still like to happen — hovercar anyone?
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Valuation
Comment 09 Aug 2016
For discussion
While some surveying jobs are more mundane, others are truly memorable. Explore these stories of surveying secret rooms, oil tankers and 12th century castles.
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Comment Cathy Linacre, 05 Aug 2016
For discussion
A recent online search on the term “Chartered Surveyor” brought to light this film held by the BFI (British Film Institute) and made for RICS in 1964. I have known of its existence for a long time as its technical director, Alan Gillett, has often told me about it. Incidentally Alan is in the video as the man up a ladder checking a balcony about 7 minutes in - take a look.
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News Cathy Linacre, 28 Jun 2016
For discussion
As the commemorations for the centenary of the Battle of the Somme approach it is easy to get overwhelmed by the numbers quoted. The British army suffered 57,470 casualties on the first day (1 July) alone while 19,240 of this number were killed or died of wounds. I have taken a look at what this battle meant for the members of the Surveyors’ Institution, as the RICS was then known.
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Residential property
News 13 May 2016
For discussion
On the 9 of September 2014, George Cadbury was awarded an honorary membership of RICS for his work with the Bournville Village Trust.
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Rural
Comment 29 Apr 2016
For discussion
Congratulations to renowned poet Robert Burns, who we've recently recognised for his fantastic work as a land surveyor.
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Quantity surveying & construction
Comment 18 Jan 2016
For discussion
John Henry Hanson FRICS became President of the Surveyors’ Institution for the years 1915/16, and took pride in being the first Yorkshireman to achieve this status.
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Planning & development
Comment Annette Howard, 18 Dec 2015
For discussion
A treasured document in our Library archive is a Christmas card sent from a German prisoner of war camp by RICS member Major John R Hodgson to the President of the Chartered Surveyors' Institution on 26 November 1943.
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Comment Cathy Linacre, 10 Nov 2015
The First World War does not appear in the transactions of the Surveyors' Institution (as RICS was then called) until November 1914, as the previous meeting had been in May - before the shooting of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the outbreak of hostilities.
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Planning & development
Comment Cathy Linacre, 10 Nov 2015
For discussion
Percy Haggis was the first member of the Surveyors' Institution to be killed in World War One. He died on 10 October 1914 at Moerbeke. The transactions note that he was a prisoner of war who was shot while trying to escape. He was 24 years old.
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Planning & development
Comment Cathy Linacre, 18 Sep 2015
For discussion
Many chartered surveyors won gallantry medals during the First World War but unfortunately these were only listed in our transactions in the early days of the war. However a list in the 1915 volume lists one medal from almost exactly 100 years ago.
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Quantity surveying & construction
Comment 20 Aug 2015
For discussion
Ken Wilkinson, was one of the UK’s last surviving former Spitfire pilots from the Battle of Britain.
During the war he flew with 616 and the 19 Squadron and said his role was to 'keep the German fighters away from Britain’s Hurricane planes.'
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Facilities management
Comment Annette Howard, 29 Jul 2015
For discussion
On 29 July 1999, as part of double centenary celebrations marking the opening of our HQ building in 1899 and the founding of our benevolent fund LionHeart, our Royal Patron, Queen Elizabeth II, visited RICS at Great George Street.
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Conservation & restoration
Comment Annette Howard, 29 Jul 2015
HM Queen Elizabeth II, RICS' Royal Patron, visited RICS HQ at Great George Street on 29 July 1999. This special visit was to mark the double centenary of the opening of the building and the creation of RICS' benevolent organisation, Lionheart. Read her speech in full.
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Comment Cathy Linacre, 02 Jun 2015
For discussion
There has been a lot in the news recently about the centenary of the Gallipoli campaign in the First World War which ran from 25 April 1915 and 9 January 1916. 12 members of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (then called the Surveyors’ Institution) died in the campaign, which aimed to secure a sea route for Britain’s Russian allies and to capture the Ottoman capital of Constantinople (modern Istanbul).
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Comment Annette Howard, 29 Apr 2015
For discussion
As London burst in life with the news of the ending of hostilities in Europe on 8 May 1945, celebrations went on long into the night after six years of war.
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Quantity surveying & construction
Comment 
Sarah Speirs , 20 Apr 2015
For discussion
Thomas L Inglis, MBE, FRICS, FNIQS, (retired) was lately assistant head, Department of Building and Surveying, Glasgow Caledonian University. Here he details the bicentenary of the Scottish Mode of Measurement.
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Quantity surveying & construction
Comment 
Louise Brooke-Smith FRICS, 16 Apr 2015
For discussion
Today I was delighted to welcome Donald Barton FRICS, who has been a member of RICS since 1941, to RICS headquarters in celebration of his 90th birthday
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News Annette Howard, 07 Apr 2015
For discussion
Did you know that RICS has been holding new members receptions for 60 years?
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Comment Cathy Linacre, 31 Mar 2015
For discussion
An intriguing sentence caught my eye when scanning old copies of the journal during my research on RICS, or the Surveyors’ Institution as we were then, in World War One:
"The Hon. Alexander A Fraser, the Master of Saltoun, Gordon Highlanders, was among those selected by the German Government for solitary confinement in reprisal for the imprisonment of the German submarine crews in this country."