Wake sees off Union Bookshop
The last day of term before the Easter vacation saw around fifty Imperial College students attend a mock funeral procession intended to mark the ‘death’ of Imperial College Union’s bookstore, the contract to supply academic texts on campus having been previously awarded to booksellers Waterstone’s.
Shortly before one o’clock on Friday 21st March, student representatives, dressed mainly in black, gathered in the middle of a brightly sunlit Beit Quad. Bemused onlookers gazed up from their pound curries and lunchtime pints as a coffin, supplied by the students’ Dramatic Society and labelled ‘RIP the Union bookstore’, was hoisted by four suited pall-bearers.
Accompanied by funereal marches from a solemnly borne Compact Disc player, the coffin, at the head of a column of sombre students, proceeded at a slow and measured pace across Prince Consort Road and South along Queensgate.
As planned, the procession paused briefly outside 170 Queensgate, where a meeting of the College’s governing body was in session, before turning in towards the Queen’s Lawn. Passing tacitly by the site of the new Waterstone’s Bookstore, the number of marchers was swollen by students joining in from along the route.
The coffin was laid ceremonially at the foot of the Queen’s Tower, and the assembled company paid their last respects during a few moments silence. The cortege even drew a few dipped safety helmets from the construction workers on the Bio-Medical Sciences site. Robert Clarke, incoming Imperial College Union Deputy President for Finance & Services, then gave a brief speech finishing on an optimistic note.
The coffin was hoisted once more, and carried up the stairs to the Senior Common Room, past open-mouthed diners and Sherfield staff. The procession received a somewhat warmer reception as it moved through the Junior Common Room, before occupying the Sherfield Walkway en route to its ultimate destination. Students more than filled the old bookstore as the coffin was laid to rest in the window, topped by a human skull.
The day’s events, organised by the Union’s Executive Committee, were intended more as a show of feeling rather than a demonstration designed to bring about change. Despite their obvious frustration and disappointment at losing the right to sell books on campus, students leaving the ‘wake’ were in good spirits and immediately headed for the bar. Later, one member of the Committee explained the significance of the Easter holiday to the Union: "The bookstore may have been betrayed for thirty pieces of silver by a Judas in the Sherfeld building, but on the third day, when we roll the rock from the front of the cave, we were confident that it would rise again - as the new ‘Union shop.’"
The first day of the summer term saw students browsing for course texts among copies of ‘The Science of Star Trek’ beneath Waterstone’s imposing new entrance beside the Library turnstiles. Meanwhile, the first day of trading at the Union’s new Sherfield Walkway outlet heralded the culmination of several weeks’ busy work by the Shop’s staff and a hectic last weekend to complete the fit out.
The Shop has undergone dramatic refurbishment, and expanded its ranges of stationery, College regalia and other equipment
