Revolution and Reform: Poverty, Wealth and History in the

Location: Section 4: Investigation and Invigoration: Reform in the East End

Author: Paul Johnson

Assessment: Good Intentions

The path to reform the lot of East Enders was paved with good intentions, and this was nowhere more obvious than in the programmes of Toynbee Hall. Toynbee Hall was the East End arm of the University , which set up educational establishments in deprived inner-city areas, ostensibly to bring culture and learning to the poor and underprivileged. These settlements were staffed by university graduates who lived among the inner-city populations, holding classes in various disciplines for the `greater good’ of the poor.

Opened by Canon Samuel Barnett in the heart of in 1884, Toynbee Hall was a country-style manor. There, he organized classes, lectures, excursions and activities of various descriptions, published a newsletter with details of these activities and housed the resident- volunteers from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge who participated.

But how precisely did these lecturers and volunteers conceptualize their mission? What did they think they were achieving and bringing to the people of the East End? Indeed, how useful were the classes in practice? There are few voices from the inhabitants of the East End itself, but we have a multitude of sources from Toynbee Hall — ranging from annual reports to newsletters to lists of the monthly activities — that provide some insight into the intentions of the residents and the success of their programme.

Examine the following excerpts and images and answer these questions. Paul’s answer will be available for comparison after you have explored the sources:

• What does the monthly calendar reveal about the educational agenda of the residents of Toynbee Hall? • What were the aims of Samuel and in establishing Toynbee Hall? • How did Samuel and Henrietta Barnett conceptualize the relationship between educa tion, poverty and morality? • How appealing do you think the programme of lectures and events would have been to ordinary East Enders? • How successful do you think the classes for the edification of East Enders were in reaching out to the locals?

Poverty, Wealth and History in the East End of London Investigation and Invigoration: Reform in the East End Assessment The Toynbee Record -2- No. 1. October 1888 One Penny

MONTHLY CALENDAR

October

• Meeting of the Toynbee Natural History Society. • Re-opening of singing classes. • Re-opening of violin classes. • Re-opening of the men’s carpentering classes. • Meeting of the Elizabethan Literary Society; Mr F. Rogers, on `Marlowe’s Tamburlaine the Great’. • Concert by the Balliol Musical Union, conducted by D. Farmer. • Miss Farnell — Third of a course of twelve lectures on `Italian Art’. • Opening conversazione of the University Extension Society. • Professor Vivian B. Lewes’s first lecture of a course of ten, on `The Chemisty of the Arts and Manufacture’. • Mr J. Churton Collins’s first lecture of a course of ten, on `Milton and Dryden’. • Mr F.A. Bather’s first of a course of six lectures, on `Cuttle Fish and their Allies’. • Dr S. Rawson Gardiner’s first lecture of a course of ten, on `English and European History during the Stuart period’. • Meeting of the Toynbee Shakespeare Club. • Mr Walter Pye’s first lecture of a course of ten, on `Physiology’. • First Saturday evening lecture, Frederic Harrison, M.A., on `Some great Nooks of History’. • First Ethical lecture, 7.30 pm. • Conversazione of the University Extension Society. • Bennet Burleigh (war correspondent) lectures on the `Soudan’. • Ethical lecture, 7.30 pm. • First smoking conference. • Meeting of the Toynbee Shakespeare Club. • The Rev. Professor Bonney lectures on the `Oldest Monuments in Britain and Brittany’. • Ethical lecture. • Meeting of the Toynbee Philosophical Society.

N.B. The lectures, classes, etc., when not otherwise stated, begin at 8 pm.

INTRODUCTORY By the Rev. S.A. Barnett, Warden

The Toynbee Record is not a revival of the Toynbee Journal. There will be no attempt in its pages to give essays or to collect the words of the wise. Its aim is simply to inform those who care to know what is doing in Toynbee Hall, and what is wanted that the doing may be better done. One advantage of a centre of education is the interest which it creates in studies

Poverty, Wealth and History in the East End of London Investigation and Invigoration: Reform in the East End Assessment outside a student’s own pursuit. Those whose one thought it has been to know science, come -3- into contact with others whose talk is of Dr Gardiner or Mr Churton Collins, and those whose care has been the delights of literature hear the sound of Mr Ward’s carpenters, or of Mr Truslove’s fiddles, and all alike, it may be hoped, feel drawn towards the solution of the problem of poverty and sadness which occupies the mind of Toynbee men. There has though, been some difficulty experienced in making known the various classes, conferences, societies, debates, and entertainments,—the cyclostyle is unimpressive, and handbills do not tend to unity of thought. This Toynbee Record therefore offers itself to all whom Toynbee Hall has served a little, so that in future it may serve them much. In its pages month by month will be found notices of the various operations, and the tale of the past will suggest to each reader what he may do, or get, or give in the future. Many will discover that that the stream on which they are floating is wider and deeper than they thought; they will learn that with them are students and workers quite other than themselves and they will see that the movement of the stream of which they are part is toward the refreshment of the world. Well has it been said that it is in connection with a stream of thought that the best work is done, and it is into a stream of thought that it is the aim of the Record to bring each one who comes to Toynbee Hall.

Further, there has also been a difficulty in making widely known the wants as they have arisen; sometimes a party of boys waits to hear about great men or great deeds; sometimes a club is failing for want of a leader; sometimes applications come for teaching in language or science; sometimes a party of would-be excursionists have to disperse because there is no one to conduct them to the Zoo or guide them to the search of botanical or geological specimens; sometimes rooms lie unused because there is no one to show a magic lantern or give a concert; sometimes it is the want of a piano or the want of money which delays some scheme of education, or of entertainment, or of co-operation; always it is for want of help that improvement is so slow, that so many are ignorant who might be wise, and so many sad who might be comforted.

It has been difficult to make these wants known, and it would not be possible to approach each visitor, or each student, or each one whom Toynbee Hall has benefited and say, ``Will you teach, or play, or lecture, or visit, or give?’’ although quite possibly each one could and would do something. The Toynbee Record will in future month by month put the wants of the place before all alike. In its pages it will be told what friends the poor want, what sort of pleasure recreates the sad, what holidays the children spend, what technical teaching is within reach, what hinders the development of productive co-operation, what classes are without teachers, what teachers are without appliances, what is wanting in clubs to make them centres of education and of entertainment, what may be done in schools to make them the seed plots in which to grow men and women with knowledge to choose the good and refuse the evil, what ignorance of God prevents the fullness of life, what, lastly, is lacking for lack of money, and how those with pence or with pounds may help those who serve with their time and their energy. The knowledge of the wants of the place will, it is believed, make active some of the good-will which has been so largely expressed, and complete the circle of service by bringing those who have been served to serve others.

In this first number the facts and wants of education occupy the most space. What is done and what is proposed are set forth by various hands. The future it will be seen, ought to be

Poverty, Wealth and History in the East End of London Investigation and Invigoration: Reform in the East End Assessment more than the past; whether it is so depends on the way in which the statement of wants is -4- met by those who have time or money.

Toynbee Hall, Whitechapel Fifth Annual Report of the Universities Settlement in East London

The Streets Committee The Streets Committee, formed in the summer of 1888 to inquire into and aid in the repression of the frequent disturbances of the neighbourhood, continues its work. Nightly patrols were organized until Christmas, 1888, in the immediate neighbourhood of the Hall; but since that time, in consequence of the marked improvement in the orderliness of the streets, only on the four noisier nights — Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays.

Much evidence has been collected and reported to the Committee, and it is hoped that the information thus brought together will furnish the material for a useful report on the nature and cause of these disturbances. The help given to the Committee by neighbours has already been referred to. A Sanitary Aid Sub-committee, the outcome of the knowledge gained from the reports of the patrollers, has recently been formed.

Entertainment

In no way is the Settlement carrying out the original idea of the Association more truly than by becoming to an increasing extent a centre of social life in East London. The work of the Entertainment Committee reflects the many-sided activity of which Toynbee Hall is the centre. `Teachers, Co-operators, East End Club Members, University Extension Students, Working Men, Politicians, Men and Women of Science, Street Orderly Boys, Needlewomen, Policemen, Railway Porters, Clergy and Philanthropists’ have met in its rooms; friendships have been made, pleasure has been given, the bonds of sympathy between many representing widely separated spheres of life have been strengthened, and many have learnt what gain may come from the meeting and friendly intercourse of those whose lives seemed far apart.

During the past two years several thousand persons have been brought together at Toynbee Hall at Conversaziones and Parties, in Conferences, at Meetings of Societies, and at Concerts and miscellaneous gatherings, for the organization of which the Entertainment Committee is responsible. On all these it is impossible to report with any degree of fullness. The occasions and the manner of meeting have been different — at one time it may have been a Conference of those with special knowledge, but representing different shades of opinion, on some current social question; at another, the music in the lighted quadrangle may have entertained poorer neighbours; or Students may have met together; or again, the bond of special friendships with East End neighbours have been made stronger by a “pals’ party;” but on all occasions the hope has been `to provide a meeting place where simply and naturally, without undue conventional restraints and wearying etiquette, people may come to know each other’s characters, thoughts, beliefs,’ knowing that `the cultivation of social life and manners is equal to a moral impulse, for it works to the same end … It brings men together, makes them feel the need of one another, to be considerate to one another, understand one another.’ How far this may have been done it is impossible to say, but it is

Poverty, Wealth and History in the East End of London Investigation and Invigoration: Reform in the East End Assessment certain that every year increases the number of those who are able to say that life for them -5- has been made better as well as brighter by the time they have spent at the Settlement, and that through its agency life has been touched with finer impulses.

Canon Barnett, His Life, Work and Friends, By His Wife – Mrs Henrietta Barnett

Describing the responses of two Toynbee teachers of their classes:

1886 — My Political Economy class consists of about a dozen of the best sort of working men, steady, thrifty, interested in the improvement of their order. They bring to discussions a good practical knowledge and common sense, and I my book-knowledge of the subject. Between my ounce of theory and their pound of practice we have some very interesting talks. I suppose my wider range is some small contribution to the subject, at any rate we are always open to discuss `any point at any distance from that point’. At present the class is going through Marshall’s Economics of Industry. These men have formed the nucleus of a considerably larger body of working men among whom I found an interest in Relief and Education. In both of these lines they have done this year plenty of good solid work that has filled me with admiration.

1886 — As I was engaged all day reading in chambers, my leisure time was the evening. Before leaving Oxford I had arranged to take two reading parties at Toynbee Hall, one in Latin, and another in English Literature … Soon some of the Latin class expressed a wish to learn Greek, so I added a third class. All three classes went on till well into the summer. Of the Latin and Greek class the majority were of the lower middle class — but one was a pupil teacher and one a foreman at the docks. In the Tennyson class I had a journeyman woodcarver, who also joined the `Hume and Herbert Spencer’ reading party which I formed somewhat later … It is still flourishing with a majority of the same members with whom it started, and is at present in the throes of a final grapple with `transfigured Realism’, and hopes soon to emerge into the humaner sphere of the ethical speculation.

Toynbee Record, 1893

The social problem is at root an educational problem, and they who have been concerned at Toynbee Hall to raise the standard of living have been driven to develop educational schemes. They found that without more knowledge, power might be a useless weapon and money only a means of degradation, and that without more education, local government would hardly be for the local good … They realized that no secure position would be won until people were educated to win it for themselves, and that no happiness is satisfactory except that which comes from `the inward eye’.

Here then is the reason for the classes … Here is the reason for the schemes of study which are set forth as trustworthy guides for those who want their minds fitted to be always learning; here is the reason for all the efforts to put alongside wage-earning subjects such mind-stretching subjects as the principles of history and of science.

The danger is lest the development of the educational side of Toynbee Hall may lead some students to think that education is the end in view and leave them satisfied with the joy they are

Poverty, Wealth and History in the East End of London Investigation and Invigoration: Reform in the East End Assessment finding for themselves and with their own growing power to choose the good and refuse the -6- evil. The safeguard against this danger is the memory of the object for which all the teaching has been given …

The object is that there may not be so many wretched, homeless people on Commercial Street doorsteps, or so many unemployed half-fed in their single-roomed homes, so many neighbours full of envy, hatred and uncharitableness; that work may not be so destructive of mind, and that the problem of capital and labour may not be settled by bullets. The memory of this object will make students feel in honour bound to become servants. The acceptance of the teaching will be to them as the acceptance of the Queen’s shilling by which the receivers are pledged to be loyal fighters on her side.

If any man or woman asks: ``What can I do?’’ Mrs Barnett and I would be ill-fitted for the place we occupy if we could give no answer. The Warden of Toynbee Hall is not a head of an Educational Institute; he is a director of enthusiasms disciplined for the service of East London. Study and service should be the watchword of those who belong to this centre of education.

Poverty, Wealth and History in the East End of London Investigation and Invigoration: Reform in the East End Assessment PAUL JOHNSON’S ANSWER -7-

1888 was the year of the matchgirls’ strike in London’s East End. Dozens of matchgirls marched to Westminster protesting against unhealthy working conditions and appalling pay. It was the year before the dock strike in which dockers hung up their overalls in protest at their pay and conditions. Waves of immigrants from Russia and Eastern Europe began to pour into the East End around that time, and it became a melting pot for the disenfranchised, discontented and deprived.

In Toynbee Hall, however, the months passed by in tranquillity with violin classes, singing classes, meetings of the Toynbee Natural History Society, courses of lectures on Italian art, Milton and Dryden, and `Cuttle Fish and their Allies’, among other subjects. The Toynbee Shakespeare Club and the Elizabethan Literary Society also met at regular intervals. A very brief glance at the monthly calendar for Toynbee Hall reveals that, on the surface at least, there was very little there that was relevant to the issues and problems East Enders had to contend with every day.

Those attending the events provided by Toynbee Hall were being educated in middle-class life and values. There was little in the way of practical education in skills or crafts that might have enabled them to earn a living or qualify themselves for certain kinds of work. But there were opportunities to attend lectures and participate in clubs such as might have existed in Oxford or Cambridge at that time. Although there were men’s carpentering classes, the monthly calendar was dominated by events such as ``Dr S. Rawson Gardiner’s first lecture of a course of ten, on `English and European History during the Stuart period’.’’ Clearly those in charge of the agenda believed that education in such matters was of superior importance and that Toynbee Hall’s role was to provide such intellectual and cultural opportunities.

But it is Samuel Barnett’s fervent preamble to the first edition of the Toynbee Record in October 1888 that provides the real clues about the educational agenda of the resident-volunteers of Toynbee Hall. In the opening paragraph, Barnett states: ``One advantage of a centre of education is the interest which it creates in studies outside a student’s own pursuit.’’ He was interested in cultivating areas of knowledge that were not already covered by the students’ occupation: education was about acquiring a sociable breadth of knowledge. ``Many will discover that that the stream on which they are floating is wider and deeper than they thought; they will learn that with them are students and workers quite other than themselves and they will see that the movement of the stream of which they are part is toward the refreshment of the world.’’

The account of Entertainment from the Fifth Annual Report of the Universities Settlement in East London describes the social mission of Toynbee Hall. Bringing together people from all classes and all walks of life was a fundamental part of Toynbee Hall’s remit to educate, elevate and create communities, and it was one of Samuel Barnett’s clearest aims:

`` `Teachers, Co-operators, East End Club Members, University Extension Students, Working Men, Politicians, Men and Women of Science, Street Orderly Boys, Needlewomen, Policemen, Railway Porters, Clergy and Philanthropists’ have met in its rooms; friendships have been made, pleasure has been given, the bonds of sympathy between many representing widely

Poverty, Wealth and History in the East End of London Investigation and Invigoration: Reform in the East End Assessment separated spheres of life have been strengthened, and many have learnt what gain may come -8- from the meeting and friendly intercourse of those whose lives seemed far apart.’’

They were genuinely concerned about bringing these groups together. Entertainment and creating a social environment in which people from all walks of life might mingle was one way of doing this.

However, this was just one arm of their strategy. The really meaningful aims of Samuel Barnett and his wife Henrietta can be seen most clearly through their definition of `education’. Education for Samuel Barnett was not simply the acquisition of vocational knowledge that would have been of most immediate use to East Enders. It was a broader cultural and moral experience. His introductory preamble to the 1888 Toynbee Record speaks of the absolute need to address the wants of schools to ``make them the seed plots in which to grow men and women with knowledge to choose the good and refuse the evil … ‘’. So, education and knowledge equips people with the powers of moral judgement. In the view of Samuel Barnett, such moral judgement lifts humankind out of their degraded state.

This philosophy found its way into the action of the East End. The Streets Committee from the Fifth Annual Report of Toynbee Hall reports that its activities were aimed at ``inquir[ing] into and aid[ing] in the repression of the frequent disturbances of the neighbourhood … ‘’. This effectively meant that the resident-volunteers of Toynbee Hall patrolled the streets of the East End at night to investigate the causes of disorder and do their best to maintain it.

The links between education, good judgement, moral well-being and the alleviation of poverty were slowly being made explicit. Such a view is open to the charge of being patronising, yet Samuel Barnett did not believe that only the poor and deprived benefited morally from such contact and exercises. He believed that ``the cultivation of social life and manners is equal to a moral impulse, for it works to the same end … It brings men together, makes them feel the need of one another ... ‘’. He also stressed the benefit of this interaction to the privileged residents of Toynbee Hall. They too would be improved by the experience: ``every year increases the number of those who are able to say that life for them has been made better as well as brighter by the time they have spent at the Settlement, and that through its agency life has been touched with finer impulses.’’

Yet how successful were the policy-makers of Toynbee Hall in reaching out to their audience of East Enders? How far did their good intentions carry them? Henrietta Barnett’s biography of her husband, refers to the responses of some Toynbee teachers to their classes. The discrepancy between the academic proclivities of the teachers and the more practical applications of the students are hinted at in these passages: ``My Political Economy class consists of about a dozen of the best sort of working men, steady, thrifty, interested in the improvement of their order. They bring to discussions a good practical knowledge and common sense, and I my book- knowledge of the subject. Between my ounce of theory and their pound of practice we have some very interesting talks.’’ The nuances are clear, yet the teacher is keen to point out that it is a body of ``working men’’ that attend his classes and that in this year they have done ``plenty of good solid work that has filled [him] with admiration.’’

The second contribution explains in greater detail the social make-up of his classes: ``Of the

Poverty, Wealth and History in the East End of London Investigation and Invigoration: Reform in the East End Assessment Latin and Greek class the majority were of the lower middle class — but one was a pupil -9- teacher and one a foreman at the docks. In the Tennyson class I had a journeyman woodcarver … ‘’.

It is almost impossible to measure the `success’ of Toynbee Hall. Its intentions were in part to elevate the moral climate of the East End through intellectual and educational pursuits, partly to encourage the greater commingling of different communities. Moral climate is a subjective value that changes in definition and measure over time, but these contributions show that there were, at least, an exceptional dock foreman and a journeyman woodcarver who attended the classes. The log from the Katherine Buildings, presented earlier in this course, also showed tenement dwellers who read Dante and Milton. Such forays into the world of the intellectual elites, the world of Oxford and Cambridge graduates, were perhaps unsurprisingly quite rare, but these extracts show they were certainly possible. The question remains whether such intellectual ambitions, made any difference to the daily grind of poverty for many East Enders.

Poverty, Wealth and History in the East End of London Investigation and Invigoration: Reform in the East End Assessment Poverty, Wealth and History in the East End of London Investigation and Invigoration: Reform in the East End Assessment