Plans for Geography department relocation to Rutherford Building
17 Nov 2025
Next summer, most colleagues from our Geography Department will be moving to a new space: the historic Rutherford Building*.
The Rutherford Building, originally called the Physics Laboratory, was opened 125 years ago. This historic space was where Ernest Rutherford, who joined the University in 1907, carried out many of his experiments, including splitting the atom for the first time, in 1919.
This beautiful building with such a proud history is Grade II listed but was in need of a significant makeover. That is what has been happening for the last 18 months. Decades of scientific experiments without today’s strict safety controls had led to potential for the building to contain hazardous materials.
Extensive surveys and remediation works were carried out in the 1990s and early 2000s to de-risk those locations identified at the time as having legacy issues. Following the remediation works there remained the possibility of some lower risk contamination in areas where people would not usually be working, such as floor voids, presenting a potential risk to building contractors.
Specialist contractors were appointed to carry out surveys and remediation works. These identified some below-floor locations where mercury vapour was detected, indicating that there were droplets of elemental mercury present, which our contractors have painstakingly removed. Having been made safe for building works, Rutherford is now being extensively refurbished to create a workspace for 2025, whilst retaining its turn-of-the-century character.
The building refurbishment is now in full-swing and representatives from the Geography Department and our Head of School have recently been taken for walk-throughs by the contractors to see the progress made. As we approach the time when we will start asking Geography colleagues to prepare for the move, we have set up a microsite to share information about the Rutherford building refurbishment and relocation. The site is accessible to all SEED colleagues.
Over the coming months we’ll be regularly engaging with Geography colleagues to involve them in decision-making and prepare them for the move. We’ll also be keeping colleagues across SEED up-to-date with what is going on.
An indicative timetable for the Rutherford relocation:
Ongoing: building renovation and refitting (due to complete end April 2026)
January – June 2026: Preparation for move
June – August 2026: Staff relocation
*The Geography labs will remain in their current location.