Doing good
Kenneth Lindsay
Toynbee Hall: The First Hundred Years Asa Briggs and Anne Matartney (Routledge & Kegan Paul £15) his is the biography of a unique institu- tion, in fact a residential community living and working in one of London's most deprived areas, just east of the City and Aldgate Pump — the first English settle- ment of its kind. The authors are two historians, one Asa Briggs, Provost of Worcester College, Oxford, and famous for several books on social history, the other Anne Macartney, Fellow of the Institute of Historical Research.
I wonder how many people know any- thing at first hand about Toynbee Hall, why it was founded and by whom. Who Was Toynbee? What is a settlement and what are its functions? Let me say im- mediately that the authors and publishers have produced an attractive and well- illustrated reply to such general questions. Further, they have given a vivid descrip- tion of East London at the turn of the 19th century, the grim poverty, housing and conditions of employment, Bloody Sun- day, the riots in Trafalgar Square, the Dock Strike and so on. They also refer to the writings of Charles Booth and many others, the Mission work and the awaken- ing conscience of Englishmen and women to the social and economic divisions in society. The general reader will be intro- duced to a novel piece of social history and social adventure, especially if their only previous contact with East London has been with Jack the Ripper, Limehouse Nights and Jack London's People of the Abyss.
In 1872, the Rev. Samuel Barnett moved from St Mary's Bryanston Square in the West End of London and settled in Whitechapel as Vicar of St Jude's, a derelict church in the East End. Arnold Toynbee, history tutor at Balliol College, Oxford, friend and pupil of the great T. H. Green, often visited St Jude's and gave some lectures in East London. As a histor- ian, he is said to have popularised, if not invented, the term 'Industrial Revolution'. He died in 1882 at the early age of 31. Barnett, Green and Toynbee, each from his own angle, were committed to a con- ception of active citizenship in East Lon- don, and together with other leading Ox- ford men they decided to link the name of Toynbee with a permanent settlement in Stepney. Hence Toynbee Hall. Many other settlements have been estab- lished in London, Liverpool, Manchester and in the United States. But Toynbee Hall, called the Mother of Settlements, has survived for 100 years, with a unique appeal. Why? The answer is given in the two most substantial chapters in the book, `Beveridge and After' and 'The Mallon Years'. During the half-century 1903-1954, Toynbee Hall acquired a national and even international reputation. I must point to a certain Oxford tradition which, starting with Dr Jowett, Master of Balliol, T. H. Green, Beveridge, William Temple, Taw- ney and A. D. Lindsay (also Master of Balliol), was passed down to Samuel and Henrietta Barnett living in Whitechapel. It continued in some form until the end of the Mallon years in 1954, when it was passed back from Whitechapel to Oxford. Hence Barnett House.
Beveridge and Tawney became residents in 1903, Beveridge as Sub-Warden to Barnett. The Beveridge Plan was a distilla- tion of long experience, advising govern- ments, presiding over the London School of Economics, but mostly gained at Toyn- bee Hall. Tawney's links with Oxford and Whitechapel helped him become the pioneer and finally President of the Work- ers' Education Association. Archbishop Temple and A. D. Lindsay, with the approval of Lord Curzon, Chancellor of Oxford University, were stalwart suppor- ters of the WEA and particularly the three-year Tutorial Classes. This tradition cannot be identified with any 'ism'. For the most part it involved a Christian back- ground, the gospel of enquiry and sharing knowledge, fraternity, educational oppor- tunity (always stressed by Toynbee him- self). Barnett was the incarnation of this general attitude. He was a great natural leader. He became a Poor Law Guardian, he started numerous practical charities for children and for the neighbourhood. His links with contemporary artists led to the creation of the Whitechapel Art Gallery. The long chapter on the Mallon Years, 1919-1954, is an exemplary piece of social history. To quote the authors: 'Mallon was Toynbee Hall and many historians (and residents) judge the period as the most successful in the Settlement's history.' I was a resident and confirm that verdict. Jimmy Mallon came, not from Oxford but from the Ancoats Settlement in the slums -of Manchester. He led a deputation of the Anti-Sweating League to meet Winston Churchill, hence the Trade Boards Act, 1909; he knew not only the key people in the trade unions and Labour movement, but leading Liberal and Conservative MPs and was trusted on all sides. Under his genial leadership, Toynbee Hall became a civilised and friendly place, at times ringing with laughter at his infectious humour. He was the despair of the pompous and professional do-gooders. He was quick to see through the phoney catchwords of Communists and Fascists long before most others. Read the book and see what Mallon did to combat Mosleyism in East London, what Toynbee Hall did for the bombed-out in East London and how students and classes continued throughout this unsettled period.
The authors say: 'Toynbee Hall was
always open to two kinds of critics — the East Enders who distrusted its presence and those West Enders who both made fun of it and feared that it might succeed.'
This was not exactly my experience. The critics from East and West London were, firstly, the Communists (we saw them crop up from nowhere in the General Strike, 1926); secondly, the socialist intellectuals who used to taunt us; I think of John Strachey, whom I used to know at Oxford as the editor of a conservative review; thirdly, the unthinking members of the
Establishment (not the Milners, Amerys or Chamberlains but the bourgeois back- woodsmen). I never found distrust from East Londoners and I was a Poor Law Guardian for many years. As an old lady told me on the bus last week, 'Oh, you are going to Toynbee, are you, a friendly place, sort of place you can go to when you're in difficulty.' Much more common in my experience is a widespread ignorance or false knowledge of what Toynbee Hall is and does. Perhaps the publication of this enlightening book will help.
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