Toynbee Hall

Toynbee Hall opened on Christmas Eve in 1884 as the world’s first university settlement. Its founders, Samuel and Henrietta Barnett, established the institution with the goal of bringing educated university graduates from Oxford and Cambridge to live directly among the impoverished residents of London’s East End. They believed that poverty could only be properly understood and addressed if those shaping national policy experienced daily life in the neighborhood themselves. To achieve this, they built a residence designed to feel like an academic college, complete with lecture halls and debating spaces, right in the heart of Whitechapel. Continue