'Franco-British Cultural Exchanges: the Case of the Institut Francais 1910-1981'

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The Institut Français, founded in London in 1910, is one of the most important French cultural centres in the world. Originally a private institution, it gradually became an official organisation of the French state with the mission to promote French culture in Britain. In the First World War, it played a role in assisting many French and Belgian refugees who ended up in London, and it was out of a need to educate the children among these refuges that it helped to set up the famous Lycée français of London. Ever since then the Institut has been a significant presence in the life of the French community in London. The Institut has also been an important point of contact with France for British Francophiles - and indeed for the wider British public - and it has served at various times to promote the attempts of the British and French government to develop closer political and cultural ties. It is of course no coincidence that it was founded in the wake of the Entente Cordiale of 1904. The opening of its new building in 1939 by the French President Albert Lebrun and Princess Mary was a major statement of Franco-British unity and co-operation on the eve of the Second World War. After the Fall of France the Institut became initially a rallying point for early recruits to the Free French but then became a more contested space after its director Denis Saurat moved to an anti-Gaullist position. The purpose of this project is to write the history of the Institut, taking it as a prism though which to view three issues: the nature of Franco-British cultural exchanges, the cultural policies of the French state and the life of the French community in London. These are three very big questions but what makes the project manageable is that they will be approached concretely though the history of this strategically important institution. The Institut has important archives on its own history that have hardly been utilised before, and its participation in this project will also provide the necessary contacts to allow the student to carry out interviews with former directors and personnel of the Institut. The complex relationship between Britain and France is a subject of perennial fascination and this project aims to offer an original approach to it