Toynbee Hall

Toynbee Hall, established in memory of the philanthropic historian Arnold Toynbee (1852-1883) in 1884, was the first settlement house to be founded within the late 19th century British settlement movement. Established in the East End of London, Toynbee Hall remains the longest running settlement house in the world, and continues to develop international solutions for handling the social effects of impoverishment worldwide. Toynbee Hall also served as the model for the United States first settlement house, the Jane Addams Hull House based in Chicago, Illinois.

Mission

The mission of Toynbee Hall, as developed by founders Samuel and Henrietta Barnett, is to promote practical and innovative programs for underprivileged residents of all ages, backgrounds and associations. Aiming to meet the needs of all local residents while improving the conditions in which they live, Toynbee Hall provides various services designed for families, adults, youth, elderly and immigrants to help London’s underprivileged population to maximize their social potential. Toynbee Hall, in part with the British Association of Settlements and Social Action Centres, and with the International Federation of Settlements and Neighbourhood Centres, works to improve the social conditions for London’s lower-class by offering various local programs, advocating for social policies of justice, and networking for social change at the local and national levels. To date, Toynbee Hall provides services for more than 6,000 community members and maintains a volunteer staff of more than 400 residential and non-residential members.

History

Toynbee Hall was founded in 1884 by British curate Samuel Barnett and his wife Henrietta in hopes of alleviating the impoverished and underprivileged position of those living within London’s East End. The solution, as designed by the Barnett’s with the support of Oxford University, involved bringing England’s most privileged elite into the dilapidated British borough to work, educate and serve as an example to the surrounding communities and their members. Through a philanthropic mix of education and social reform, the Barnett’s hoped to significantly improve the poorest of London’s neighborhoods and change urban British society for the better. With its foundation, Samuel Barnett urged residents 'to learn as much as to teach; to receive as much to give'.

The Founders

Samuel Augustus Barnett (February 8, 1844 – 1913) was an English clergyman and social reformer particularly associated with the establishment of the first university settlement, Toynbee Hall in east London in 1884.

He was born in Bristol, the son of Francis Augustus Barnett, an iron manufacturer. After leaving Wadham College, Oxford, in 1866, he visited the United States. In the following year he was ordained to the curacy of St Mary's, Bryanston Square, and took priest's orders in 1868.

In 1873, he married Henrietta Octavia Rowland (later better known as Dame Henrietta Barnett), who had been a co-worker with Miss Octavia Hill and was as much a philanthropist as her husband. Later that year, with his wife, Samuel came to the impoverished Whitechapel parish of St Jude’s intent on improving social conditions.

The area was notorious for its squalid and overcrowded housing conditions; the Barnetts worked hard for the poor of their parish, opening evening schools for adults, providing them with music and entertainment, and serving on the board of guardians and on the managing committees of schools. Barnett discouraged outdoor relief, because it fostered the pauperisation of the neighbourhood. At the same time, the conditions of indoor relief were improved, and the various charities were co-ordinated, by co-operation with the Charity Organization Society and the parish board of guardians.

In 1875 Balliol historian Arnold Toynbee paid the first of many visits to Whitechapel, and in 1877, Barnett, who kept in constant touch with Oxford, formed a small committee, over which he presided, to consider the organisation of university extension in London. His chief assistants were Leonard Montefiore, a young Oxford man, and Frederick Rogers, a member of the vellum binders' trade union. The committee received influential support, and in October four courses of lectures, one by Dr SR Gardiner on English history, were given in Whitechapel. The Barnetts were also associated with the building of model dwellings (1888), with the establishment of the children's country holiday fund (1884) and the annual loan exhibitions of fine art at the Whitechapel gallery.

In 1884 an article by Barnett in the Nineteenth Century discussed the question of university settlements - places where richer students could live alongside, learn about and contribute to the welfare of much poorer people - in Barnett’s words: 'to learn as much as to teach; to receive as much to give'.

This resulted in the formation of the University Settlements Association, and when Toynbee Hall was built shortly afterwards, Barnett became its first Warden. The settlement was visited in 1888 by American reformer Jane Addams who returned to the US inspired to create similar facilities there, the first Hull House opening in Chicago, Illinois a year later.

Barnett was a select preacher at Oxford in 1895-1897, and at Cambridge in 1900; he received a canonry in Bristol Cathedral in 1893, but retained his wardenship of Toynbee Hall, while relinquishing the living of St Jude's. In June 1906 he was given a canonry at Westminster, and when in December he resigned the wardenship of Toynbee Hall the position of president was created so that he might retain his connection.

Among Canon Barnett's works is Practicable Socialism (1888, 2nd ed. 1894), written in conjunction with his wife.

Dame Henrietta Barnett, DBE (1851 – 1936) was a notable English social reformer. Married to Samuel Augustus Barnett, she helped found the first 'University Settlement' at Toynbee Hall (east London) in 1884.

Born Henrietta Octavia Rowland, she worked with Octavia Hill who was instrumental in introducing her to the curate of St Mary’s, Bryanston Square, London. She subsequently married Samuel Barnett in 1873 and later that year the Barnetts moved to the impoverished Whitechapel parish of St Jude’s intent on improving social conditions.

A strong believer in the power of education to effect social change, she helped establish the Children's Country Holiday Fund (1884) and annual loan exhibitions of fine art at the Whitechapel gallery. The current Whitechapel Art Gallery was built in 1897 at the behest of the Barnetts, in the Arts and Crafts style.

She was also strongly associated with the Hampstead area of north-west London, conceiving the idea of the model housing development of Hampstead Garden Suburb in 1904 (working with architects Raymond Unwin and Sir Edwin Lutyens) and helping protect part of Hampstead Heath from development by Eton College. Ironically, given that this was intended to provide affordable housing, this area contains some of the most expensive real-estate per unit area in London.

She lived at Heath End House in Spaniards Road, Hampstead (today marked by a blue plaque) until her death in 1936, aged 85, 12 years after her knighthood was bestowed.

Barnett also founded the Henrietta Barnett School in Hampstead Garden Suburb in 1911.

Influence

In it earliest years, residents of Toynbee Hall, surrounded by large populations of both Jewish and Irish immigrants, campaigned for the rights of minority immigrants, and later argued against the rise of British fascism. The settlement house has also devoted much of its efforts to developing and improving adult education, collection social data, and evaluating local and national industrial conditions. Toynbee hall also offers a free legal advice center, financial aid for invalid children, various substance abuse programs, and elderly welfare services. Among its entertainment offerings, Toynbee houses both a children’s and adult’s theatre, a lecture hall, and offers its services to various social and cultural associations throughout London.

Toynbee Hall is also home to the Barnett Research Center, a unique library and collection of archives both free and open to the public. The center houses a collection of more than 4,000 books, historical writings and artifacts relating to the international settlement movement, and provides a detailed history of social and economic policy on both the local and national levels. Toynbee Hall also provides a platform for public speakers to broach current event topics including political and social reform.

Residents

The settlement house has attracted many of London’s best and brightest, including a large number of graduates from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Formers residents include British Prime Minister Clement Attlee, economist William Beveridge and politician John Profumo, who all remained associated with Toynbee Hall throughout their later professional careers. Toynbee Hall also served as a basis for the development of further social reform throughout Great Britain including the 1903 founding of the Workers Educational Association, the 1949 Citizens’ Advice Bureau and the 1965 Child Poverty Action Group. Nobel Prize winner Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of the first radiotelegraph system, also spent time at Toynbee Hall, demonstrating from London’s East End the United Kingdom’s first wireless telegraph. Artist Charles Robert Ashbee, an early resident of the settlement house, is credited with the design of Toynbee’s ‘tree of life’ logo which continues to represent the organization today. Toynbee Hall is also believed to have housed the 1926 meeting to end the United Kingdom’s General Strike.

Publications

• Pimlott, John. Toynbee Hall, Fifty Years of Social Progress, 1884-1934. JM Dent and Sons Ltd; 1935.
• Briggs, A. and Macartney A. Toynbee Hall: The First Hundred Years. Routledge & Kegan Paul; London, UK. 1984. ISBN 0710202830.
• Meacham, A. Toynbee Hall and Social Reform, 1880-1914: The Search for Community. Yale University Press; New Haven, CT. 1987. ISBN 0300038216.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Montague, Francis. Arnold Toynbee: With an Account of the Work of Toynbee Hall in East London. Johnson Reprint Corp. 1973. ISBN 0384398553.
• Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Toynbee Hall. 6 Mar. 2007.
• Toynbee, Arnold. Toynbee on Toynbee; A Conversation between Arnold J. Toynbee and G.R. Urban. New York: Oxford Press, 1974. ISBN 0195017390.

External Links

• Toynbee Hall
• International Federation of Settlements
• Lectures on the Industrial Revolution in England by Arnold Toynbee

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