A VISIT TO TOYNBEE HALL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10684, 3 February 1913, Page 3

A VISIT TO TOYNBEE HALL.

_» {From Our Ladt Qjbukspondent.] LONDON, December 14.

For at toast four tilings besides its mere continued existence is Toynbee Hall, tho first settlement to be established in London (mainly by Oxford and Cambridge men in memory of Arnold Toynbeo, a brilliant young social worker of the seventies) worthy of remark:—First, its beautiful architecture in such surroundings; second, its atmosphere of restfulness, almost sanctity, in that too well-known quarter; third, the conditions common to all residents and the unusualness of those conditions; fourth, the fact that it is a splendid success, though its ideals are very high and though it is not only non-political but unsectarian. Imagine, right at its very gates, Whitcchapel and all that that unsavoury name means to those who know it. Tho writer left its peaceful quadrangle in tho early evening 'of a winter's day, and in the very twinkling of an eye was in the glare of tho gemiino East End. Lines of flares lit up barrows where selkfcs of braces and straws, of uncertain fish and meat, of old clothes, china, books and papers, scissors, fruit and gold fish in bowls were presided over by owners who talked yiddish to each other and English to the buyer. Handsome these, both men and women, and though the latter far outshone the former in buxomness and good looks, each was the equal of each in lack of the evidence of a daily bath. Every manner of vehicle was in the streets, motor-'buses with not one but several people inside asleep. Here is an attribute one notes whenever amongst the workers of London —at whatever time of the day they have a few moments' leisure off they go to sleep, the handy boy on his luggage van lyine across sacks or less inviting things? the milliner's assistant with her boxes, the elderly woman with her great black, covered bundle of needlework or washing. Taxis, with inhabitants not of "the. East End, hurried ! by, trams, carts and, near by, trains. To cross a road here means a series of hairbreadth escapes. Babies are everywhere, and jolly little urchins. Jewish children abound, and they are a jolly type. Yet right in the very midst, and next door to that famous church of the very poor St Judes. Whitechapel. is Toynbee Hall. Through a bricked corridor and a rounded arch one goes' and in one instant is in a quadrangle that would not disgrace an old university even now, in midwinter, when tho creeners that embroider its red sides are" not. ,But all the very long windows, and there are many, have | diamond-leaded panes; there is a big clock in a clock tower; there are even I cloisters, both in and outside the building. And within men"" live just as in a university, with all the privileges of the old life, private rooms of their own, where they may entertain friends, and a common room. There is a tennis lawn, a swimming bath, a fine library (one of tho first, public libraries of tho kind in London), a gymnasium, an art gallery and all the usual class rooms and various other committee rooms necessary to meet the requirements of a settlement. , One of the most extraordinary things to the sceptical outsider must bo the footing on which a large humShe''states tliat ehe has had much trouble with the Camp Fire people, who tried to - brii!!r. her into their her of men, occupied most of them at their professions during the day., are admitted to Toynbee. Though their residence there is held to imply an interest in social and industrial matters, no duties are exacted from any, no pressure put. on any to take up social work ,and no restrictions of any kind imposed. Thus each man has-a. latchkey and.comes .in and out at whatever time he likes. He may bring friends iu to meals and may have them to stay in the Hall, and he may work or may not. ' • ■ ' Yet these men generally stay here for three years, pursuing their own work during the day (though some give all their time to Toynbee's many charities), and their interests are manifold. .The cost of living in. the Hall varies from 28s to 42s a week, though working men and others who want to take advantage of this collegiate life in London can nave a furnished room at Balliol or Wadham Houses in the grounds, at 8s a week and can have board and lodging for 20s a week inclusive. They then" may join in all the privileges Toynbee Hall gives. The rooms in these Houses are of the same cheery nomelinoss than one finds at Oxford, even to tho battered kettle on the hob, the pictures and photographs and wellused cushions.

' Something of the extent of the field covered by Toynbee f may lie guessed when it is said that altogether about a thousand people gather during the session to take advantage of one or other pf its avenues of help. One of its ideals is that university men should give of their advantages to other men less fortunate, and right royally they still carry out the aim. -There are classes for shorthand, the three R's, typing, French, German, first aid, nursing, infant care, general elementary science, the history of modern European nations, drawing and sketching, English literature, book-keeping, singing, oven Esperanto; a Travel Club which, each Easter, goes' for excursions on the Continent and which also travels about in England. Students aro even prepared for several public examinations, such as that for the Chamber of Commerce and the National Union of Teachers. In addition to those classes, there Is & Shakespeare Society, which studies and performs the Bard'a plays, an Antiquarian Society, an Elizabethan Literary Society, an Art Club and a Chess Club.

And-.not only men work in this hive, that combines such energy with such rest-fulness, but women alsp, though only men can be residents. But there was found work waiting for women that men could not manage with even tlie best intentions, and so now fair names figure with stern ones as teachers and secretaries of various societies and guilds, .while every day,_ from twelve to two, one dining room is given up to working girls, ■ who flock from the cigarette factories near by to a cheap lunch in comfort, very different from all they would get with their money in one of the adjacent shops. Evening parties are also regularly given in the Hall for inmates of workhouses and hospitals. Care committees, rescue guilds, a guild of compassion (for visiting the people in workhouses nearby) and several other good works are entirely carried on by devoted women with headquarters at Toynbee ; and it is interesting to notice that nearly all, if not all, tho many classes are on a co-educational basis, as are also some of the clubs and societies.

Of course, all manner of famous questions (or those afterwards to become famous) are discussed and threshed out in debates at Toynbee, and all manner of famous men gather round it—celebrities in art, music, politics, religion, literature and sociology. The shades of Emerson, one imagines, must hover round this apparent impossibility, made possible in the very core of London's East End, with something like genuine satisfaction.