A building society is a financial institution owned by its members as a mutual organization. Building societies offer banking and related financial services, especially mortgage lending. These institutions are found in the United Kingdom (UK) and several other countries.

The term "building society" first arose in the 18th century in Great Britain from cooperative savings groups. In the UK today, building societies actively compete with banks for most consumer banking services, especially mortgage lending and deposits.

Every building society in the UK is a member of the Building Societies Association. At the start of 2008, there were 59 building societies in the UK, with total assets exceeding £360 billion. The number of societies in the UK fell by four during 2008 due to a series of mergers brought about, to a large extent, by the consequences of the financial crisis of 2007-2010. With three further mergers in each of 2009 and 2010, and a demutualisation and a merger in 2011, the current number of building societies is at 47.

A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Human societies are characterized by patterns of relationships (social relations) between individuals who share a distinctive culture and institutions; a given society may be described as the sum total of such relationships among its constituent members. In the social sciences, a larger society often evinces stratification and/or dominance patterns in subgroups.

Insofar as it is collaborative, a society can enable its members to benefit in ways that would not otherwise be possible on an individual basis; both individual and social (common) benefits can thus be distinguished, or in many cases found to overlap.

A society can also consist of like-minded people governed by their own norms and values within a dominant, larger society. This is sometimes referred to as a subculture, a term used extensively within criminology.

Philip Sparke (born 1951 in London) is a British composer and musician. He is noted for his concert band and brass band music.

George Chandler (June 30, 1898 - June 10, 1985) was an American actor best known for playing the character of "Uncle Petrie" on the television series Lassie. He was born in Waukegan, Illinois, and died in Panorama City, California, at the age of eighty-six.

Chandler appeared six times in Bill Williams's western series The Adventures of Kit Carson (1951–1955) in episodes entitled "Law of Boot Hill", "Lost Treasure of the Panamints", "Trails Westward", "The Wrong Man", "Trail to Bordertown", and "Gunsmoke Justice". He guest starred on the Reed Hadley CBS legal drama The Public Defender. He appeared as the character Ames in the two-part episode "King of the Dakotas" in the 1955 NBC western anthology series Frontier. In the 1954-1955 season, he appeared as a milkman in two episodes of the NBC sitcom It's a Great Life, co-starring Frances Bavier and James Dunn.

In 1958, Chandler appeared as Cleveland McMasters opposite Marjorie Main as the frontierswoman Cassie Tanner in the episode "The Cassie Tanner Story" on NBC's Wagon Train.