Crosby Hall
DURING the last seventeen years Crosby Hall has been somewhat scantily treated in most London guide-books. Ever since the City and London Associa- tion (with the enthusiastic support of the Spectator among other journals) saved London's only example of the mediaeval Gothic great house from the house-breakers, by moving it from Bishopsgate to the Chelsea Embank- ment, the old Hall has been hidden behind a high wooden fencing. The problem that faced the City and London Association after the building had been re-erected in Chelsea was to find a worthy use for their protégé. It was not until four years ago, when a scheme was put forward to turn Crosby Hall into a Club House and Hall of Residence for University Women of all nations by the British Fede- ration of University Women that anything suitable was suggested. Since then the appeal for the Endowment Fund has met with such a splendid response that when, on last Wednesday, the Duchess of York visited Crosby Hall to unveil a tablet, the building presented a very different appearance from a few months ago. When once it is opened as a Clubhouse early in the New Year the Old Hall will be treated as a historical monument and .will be open for public inspection at certain hOurs every day.
Already the whole shell of the new residential wing, re- placing a portion of the building burnt down in the Fire of London, is finished and ready for occupation. Nine different countries (Germany, France, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Holland, Italy and Czecho-Slovakia) are each furnishing one or more rooms, and the response from the .Dominions has been magnificent, for Canada, Anstralia, Nesw, Zealand and India have each raised the £1,000 necessary to endow a room. The United States has been particularly generous in endowing two rooms, while prominent Americans living in this country are undertaking the furnishing of about half a dozen rooms. The special appeal in connexion with the Duchess of York's visit has also resulted in a large sum being raised towards the completion of the £50,000 necessary for the scheme, over £40,000 of which has already been subscribed.
Similar Clubhouses for Women Graduates have been opened in New York and Paris. Rome and Athens are to have them before long. Twenty-three countries now possess National Federations of University Women, whose members will be able to use Crosby Hall or any of the other different Federations' Halls as their Clubhouse, according to whatever country they happen to be put. suing their studies. Such meeting-places will certainly contribute greatly to good understanding and good will
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