There they stand, Livingstone and Shackleton, untouchably high in their niches set into the wall of the Royal Geographical Society, close to the Albert Hall. Until now, that was pretty much the image of the RGS, if it had an image at all - an unapproachable club for explorers, naturalists, military strategists, even travel writers and documentary makers - but not exactly a destination for the general public. All that has now changed. The RGS has become the latest and quirkiest - if the smallest - public museum in the South Kensington Museums district. The RGS is a wonderful, British-to-the-core place, a large and comfortably shabby Norman Shaw Arts and Crafts mansion, originally a private house, with a 1920s lecture-hall addition to one side, and a garden out the back. Its idea of a reception lobby is a vast bare-boarded hall, overlooked by a minstrel's gallery, where you sink into big well-worn sofas overlooked by portraits of the great explorers. Far from being administered by whiskered old geezers, it appears to be run by strong-limbed, good-looking women. But although the house dates back to 1875 and the RGS moved in only in 1913, the society is older - it dates from 1830. Its collections of maps, documents and artifacts is older still, covering the last half millennium. It is a hoard of riches. And now they can be seen.
