TOYNBEE HAIL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 19 December 1935, Page 10

TOYNBEE HAIL

(To the Editor) S' l ;?— ln your issue of the 17th inst., under the sub-heading of “Golden Jubilee pf Tynbee Hall” you published some cable news that might" cause a number of your readers to wonder what this institution was that should be associated ivith the Archbishop of Canteiifitry and; the Prime Minister of Great Britajn, and the occurrence of its fiftieth apinversMy'flashed half round the globe, f list, may I surmise that your chapel imp has beeu busy again though he htu'chy ever s eem s idle, and that Tynbee s a misprint for “Toynbee.” Well, Toynbee Hall was founded in I§Bs by a few enthusiasts inspired by the work aijd example of a young, cultWedj self-sacrificing Oxford graduate ana tutor, Arnold Toynbee, who had die’d a few years before at the early age of thirty. This young man’s ideal was the spreading of useful and practical knowledge of economics among the workers, and to'know their social surroundings 'by living in the same, so, being I fetter able to help their social improvement; He was not physically strdftg, and. I think 1 may safely say he gave ■)hs life for the work. This I conclude by reading between the lines of the short hieriioir of him by Benjamin Jowetf, : tjie great master of Balliol College, Oxford, “T could npt refuse,” wrote Jowetl “whep'asked to offer this slight tribute to a dearly bploved friend .... whose, imago and example have sunk deeply into 'the minds of some of his contemporaries.” Again “Whether he (Toyfii bee) received money or not, if he could only supply Ihs moderate wants, was a matter of indifference to him.” Also, “Yep, there was also a sense in the mind of some of his hearers that for such efforts he was physically unfitted, and that it niight have been better fen- him if he had abstained from them.” ly, “For several months in successive ypars he resided in Whitechapel, and undertook the duties of a visitor for the Charity Organisation Society. There he lived in half-furnished lodgings as far as he could after the manner of working men; joining in their clubs, discussing with them (sometimes in an atmosphere of bad whiskey, bad tobacco, bad drainage) 'things material and spiritual—the Idws of Nature and of God.”

To commemorate such a man and continue his work a few university men, mostly from Oxford, I believe, settled in Whitechapel, one of the poorest, most congested, gloomy districts of London, just" outside its square mile, wealthy “city.” The Rev. S. A. Barnett vicar of St. Judes there, was one of the leaders and I think the main inspiring spirit. Alongside his vicarage, which adjoined the church, modest buildings were erected where they lived. They entered into the social and municipal life, did educational work and made Toynbee Hall, as it were ah oasis in the sordid surroundings. The ’ Whitechapel centre of the University Extension Society was moved there in 1885 and four courses of ten lectures each were given each winter before Christmas and four after, and the fee for the course of ten was one shilling. If you felt you could afford more, there was the opportunity of being called an “associate” by paying 5s per course, but there was no distinction that I remember between the payers of Is and ss. The outstanding lecturer in my opinion was S. R. Gardiner ’LL, D.. the historian, whose lecture* for four years I attended. It would take up much more of your space to write of the free “Fine Art Loan Exhibitions” at Easter, the Saturday popular lectures, the Sunday ethical lectures, the smoking conferences, the Students’ Union, the Toynbee Travellers’ Club, the Students’ Free Library, sing-songs for men etc., etc. lam glad “Toynbee” is so honoured as your cable indicates, but it is news to me

I,lmt the Archbishop of Canterbury was one of the founders, more praise to him. —I am, etc., OLD TOYNBEE STUDENT (1888-92). Nelson, 18th December.