This book is an account of the oldest engineering institution in the world. It covers the history from the first meetings at the Kendal coffee house in Fleet Street in 1818 to the acquisition of numbers one to seven Great George Street and beyond. Whatever aspect of Institution life is being discussed, it is set in its wider context. After all, civil engineering affects everyone's life in obvious and direct ways, and the history of the ICE is inextricably bound with one of the greatest periods in British society. In many ways this book is the story of the men who shaped our world.