Records of Toynbee Hall, 28 Commercial Street, London, E1

Toynbee Memorial Fund

1 Minute Book 1884-1890

2 Correspondence 1884-1900

Toynbee Hall

3 Education Committee minute book 1913-1930

4 Grand or Residents Meetings minute book 1950-1958

5 Annual reports 1884-1894

6 Letters to Lord Milner 1913-1923

7 'Historical letters of E. St. J. Catchpool' 1912-1932

8 Financial reports 1888-1936

9 Universities' Settlement in East London memorandum and articles of association etc 1884, 1951, 1954

10 Educational syllabuses and evening courses 1927-1958

11 Music and drama societies, pamphlets, plays etc 1907-1934

12 Toynbee Travellers Club, visit to Florence 1888

Toynbee Travellers Club, visit to Siena 1890

13 Toynbee Theatre, accounts, regulations etc 1946-1958

People's Palace tenancy agreement & correspondence 1948, 1961

14 Night visits, London University Students Weekends 1934-1938

15 Correspondence relating to Oxford and Cambridge 1936-1937

Study Week visits 1950

16 American and European seminars 1921-1938

17 Annual report 1926

Visitors' books 1885-1945

18 Toynbee Hall Jubilee 1935

19 Press cuttings 1949-1957

20 Toynbee Journal 1885-1886

Toynbee Outlook 1935-1939

21 Pamphlets on the history of Toynbee Hall etc 1957

22 Miscellaneous articles etc 1888-1956

23 Essay on East London Post 1940

24 Barnett House Oxford 1916-1929

25 Plans, mainly of Toynbee Hall 1886; 1937-1938

26 Photographs and other miscellaneous material c 1889-1958

27 Slides and copper plate N.D

28 Further records of E. St J. Catchpool 1925; 1964

Deposited in the Greater London Record Office, The County Hall, London, SE1 7PB 26 May 1967

Ac.67.34

2 Before the records were deposited, the files and bundles were listed and numbered by staff of the National Register of Archives. These numbers are noted on the present list with the prefix HMC.

Toynbee Hall was founded by the Revd. Samuel Barnett, later Canon Barnett, in 1884. It was named after Arnold Toynbee the social philosopher and economist, who had died the previous year. Although the idea that those studying poverty and unemployment should live among the poorer classes was not new, Toynbee Hall was innovatory because the students lived together'in a fellowship like that of a college' (Preface to Toynbee Hall by J. A. R. Pimlott). This 'University Settlement' was the first of its kind in the world and the model for many others both in Great Britain and abroad.

For a detailed account of the history of Toynbee Hall searchers should consult J.A.R. Pimlott: Toynbee Hall Fifty Years of Social Progress 1884-1934 (London Dent 1935). A copy is available in the Greater London History Library. Personal papers of Canon Barnett including correspondence, sermons and lecture notes have also been deposited in the Greater London Record Office ref. F/BAR.