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Toynbee Hall was the first university-affiliated institution of the worldwide Settlement Movement—a reformist social agenda that strove to get the rich and poor to live more closely together in an interdependent community. Founded by Henrietta Weston and Samuel Barnett in 1884 in the economically depressed East End of London. Toynbee Hall was named in memory of their friend and fellow reformer, Oxford historian, Arnold Toynbee, who had died the previous year.

In 1884, Toynbee Hall introduced Oxford and Cambridge students to the hall to educate the lower classes. These students would in turn learn about poverty.

Toynbee Hall still continues today to work on bridging the gap between people of all social and financial backgrounds with its main focus being on working towards a future without poverty.

History
Shortly after their marriage in 1873, Samuel Barnett and his wife, Henrietta, moved to the Whitechapel district of the East End of London. Barnett worked as a vicar at St. Jude's church of England where he saw poverty firsthand. Late-Victorian Whitechapel was known for its overcrowded living spaces and high criminal activity. In the area of Whitechapel alone, the mortality rate for children under the age of five was around 60% mostly due to the tight living conditions. Charles Booth, another social reformer, mapped the city of London according to eight different social classes. Booth found that around 70% of people living in the East End were in the lowest three classes.

Whitechapel was also a place where many different immigrants settled. The Irish Potato Famine in the 19th-century led to many Irish settling in Whitechapel. Also, many Jewish immigrants settled in Whitechapel after fleeing from persecution in Western Europe at the time.

The Barnetts used their roles in the parish to improve the Whitechapel area. They built a church library, introduced art exhibits, brought university lecturers in, and took their parishioners on excursions to the homes of the wealthy and to universities.The Barnetts also tried to encourage officials to improve sanitation and housing and to build more playgrounds and washhouses. However, the attempts the Barnetts made with the parish had little effect on the East End community as a whole. The parish did not reach everyone that lived in the East End. Many of the people did not involve themselves with the established church. In an effort to increase the well-being of the community, Barnett had the idea to share the knowledge and culture with the community. His proposal was to have university students come volunteer and share their knowledge. The university students would then learn firsthand about poverty and potentially develop solutions for it.

In 1883, Barnett gave a lecture at St. John's College, Oxford to gain support for his idea. Barnett was able to gather enough support and a committee called the "University Settlement of East London" was set up by Oxford. With these ideas and the support of universities, Barnett founded Toynbee Hall, the first settlement house in the world. Named after another social reformer, Arnold Toynbee, Toynbee Hall first opened its doors on Christmas Eve in 1884. Samuel Barnett was named as the first warden of the hall and Oxford and Cambridge university students came to work at the hall. By 1910 more settlement houses were founded in England in the areas of Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Birmingham, Liverpool, and others in London. As well as abroad in Holland, France, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Austria, and the United States. In 1911 the leaders of the social settlement movement founded the National Federation of Settlements. One of the most well known settlement houses that was inspired after a visit to Toynbee Hall is named Hull House. Hull House was founded in Chicago by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr in 1889.

Overtime Toynbee Hall implemented many different educational community programs. At its opening, Toynbee Hall introduced University Extension Society lectures. These lectures were taught by university professors. At its peak in the 1890's, classes were taught in over 134 topics including; literature, zoology, ethics, philosophy, etc. In order to further promote education, 36 societies or clubs were created in different areas, such as, music, art, history, and science. One of these societies was founded in 1889 and was called the 'Toynbee Travelers.' This group was created after a group of Toynbee Hall residents traveled to Belgium in 1887. Toynbee Hall also began hosting Smoking Room Debates in which community members and invited speakers would come to debate issues of the day. This tradition continued for over twenty years. In 1899, the Poor Man's Lawyer service was introduced. This program gives free legal services to those who can not afford it and still continues today.

Current activity
Today, Toynbee Hall provides a range of programmes and activities, broadly broken down into: youth, the elderly, financial inclusion, debt, advice, free legal advice and community engagement.

Each year over 400 volunteers help to deliver the charity’s services.

In 2007 the Toynbee Studios opened in part of the building offering dance and media studios and a theatre.

Building
Toynbee Hall, the building that houses the organisation of the same name, is located in Spitalfields and is in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London.The building was designed by Elijah Hoole in Tudor-gothic style. It was designated a Grade II listed building in 1973. It was adjacent to the church of St Jude, Whitechapel (demolished in 1927), and was on the site of a disused industrial school.

Wardens

 * 1884–1906 Samuel Barnett
 * 1906–11 Thomas Edmund Harvey
 * 1914-17 John St George Currie Heath
 * 1919–54 James Joseph Mallon
 * 1954–63 Arthur Eustace Morgan
 * 1963–64 Egerton St John ('Jack') Catchpool
 * 1964–72 Walter Birmingham
 * 1977–87 Donald Piers Chesworth

Chair of trustees

 * 1884–96 Philip Lyttelton Gell, first chairman
 * Charles Alfred Elliott
 * 1911–25 Alfred Milner
 * 1933–45 Cosmo Lang
 * 1966 Lord Blakenham
 * 1982–5 John Profumo
 * 1985–90 Sir Harold Atcherley
 * 1990–2002 Roger Harrison
 * 2002–2009 Christopher Coombe
 * 2009–2015 Ben Rowland
 * 2015– Julian Corner

Notable associated people

 * Toynbee residents included RH Tawney and Clement Attlee
 * William Beveridge began his career by working as Sub-Warden at Toynbee Hall from 1903 to 1905
 * Visitors to Toynbee Hall included Lenin and Guglielmo Marconi
 * Lionel Ellis (1885–1970), the military historian, was an Associate Warden of Toynbee Hall after the Second World War. Between the two World Wars, he had been General Secretary of the National Council of Social Service and then Secretary of the National Fitness Council.
 * John Profumo dedicated much of his time to the Hall from the 1960s onwards after the Profumo affair forced him out of politics
 * Social reformers from the United States, such as Jane Addams and Gaylord Starin White, visited Toynbee Hall, which inspired their work to establish Hull House in Chicago and Union Settlement in New York City, respectively.
 * Sir Nicolas Bratza, was a volunteer at Toynbee Hall's Free Legal Advice Centre in the 1970s. He went on to become the President of the European Court of Human Rights from November 2011 to October 2012. In 2014, Sir Nicolas became an Ambassador for Toynbee Hall
 * Marie-Jeanne Bassot visited Hull House, which inspired her establishment of "la Résidence sociale" in Levallois-Perret (France)

Associated organisations

 * Charles Robert Ashbee created his Guild of Handicraft whilst a resident at Toynbee Hall in the late 1880s
 * The Whitechapel Art Gallery (founded 1901) grew out of annual free art exhibitions organised by Henrietta Barnett
 * The Workers Educational Association (WEA) was founded here in 1903
 * Child Poverty Action Group was founded at a meeting held at Toynbee Hall in 1965
 * Stepney Children's Fund