The opposition of the Senate resulted in limited support for Rivers's work in its early years. It was not until 1901, eight years after his appointment, that he was allowed the use of a small cottage for the laboratory, and budgeted thirty-five pounds annually (later increased to fifty) for purchase and upkeep of equipment. For several years Rivers continued in this way until the Moral Science Board increased support; in 1903, Rivers and his assistants and students moved to another small building in St Tibbs Row. These working spaces were characterised as "dismal", "damp, dark and ill-ventilated" but they did not discourage the Cambridge psychologists. Psychology began to thrive: "perhaps, in the early days of scientific progress, a subject often grows all the more surely if its workers have to meet difficulties, improvise their apparatus, and rub very close shoulders one with another." In 1912 a well-equipped laboratory was finally built under the directorship of Charles S. Myers, one of Rivers's earliest and ablest pupils. A wealthy man, he supplemented the university grant with his own funds.
