Kingsley Hall

Kingsley Hall is a community centre in the East End of London. It dates back to the work of Doris and Muriel Lester who had a nursery school in nearby Bruce Road. Kingsley Lester dies, leaving money for work in the local area for 'educational, social and recreational' purposes. During the General Strike of 1926, Kingsley Hall becomes a shelter and soup kitchen for workers. The current Hall was built on Powis Road: the stone-laying ceremony took place on July 14th, 1927.

Mahatma Gandhi stayed in Kingsley Hall in 1931 and building now houses the Gandhi Foundation. The room where he stayed has been preserved. In 1935 hunger marchers on the Jarrow March stayed at the Hall.

In 1965 R. D. Laing and his associates asked the Lesters for permission to use the Hall as a community for themselves. Kingsley Hall became home to one of the most radical experiments in psychology of the time. The aim of the experiment, a part of the Philadelphia Association, was to create a model for non-restraining, non-drug therapies for those people seriously affected schizophrenia.

History of the Hall

This is taken from the Kingsley Hall website with permission.

1912

Doris and Muriel Lester start a Nursery School at No.58 and 60 Bruce Road. Children are fed, clothed and cared for at fivepence a day. When mothers cannot afford fees, children are sponsored by a network of wealthier supporters. The service is soon expanded to include activities for older groups with the aim to provide for the development of the whole person - the mind, body and spirit - in an environment which brought people together regardless of class, race and religion.

1914

Kingsley Lester dies, leaving what money he has for work in Bow towards "educational, social and recreational" purposes.

1915

Doris and Muriel Lester buy an old chapel on the corner of Eagling and Botolph Road, which is re-decorated and fitted by local volunteers. It is a "people's house", where friends and neighbours - workmen, factory girls and children of Bow - came together for worship, study, fun and friendship.

Kingsley Hall, as it comes to be known, runs a Nursery, as well as socials, concerts and Adult School. Football, sunday services and summer holday schemes are also initiated. A new way of life has been created within the Hall.

World War I. Doris and Muriel remain pacifists, in the face of criticism. Kingsley Hall runs a soup kitchen and stays open at night for Air Raid Wardens.

At the close of the war, Doris and Muriel join a march to the House of Commons demanding that milk be sent to Germany, where people are starving.

A German child is adopted by members of Kingsley Hall who pay for her to stay with a local family for two years.

1918

Kingsley Hall maintains strong links with the Suffragettes Movement in East London. Activists campaign for Votes for Women in the face of threats.

Muriel speaks on street corners, and is found Sunday mornings in Victoria Park. Local people contribute after her talks towards maintaining services at Kingsley Hall.

Later, Muriel becomes an Alderman on Poplar Borough Council. She fights for basic provisions such as milk for children under five.

Mr. Lester buys a cottage in Loughton, to be used as a holiday place by families from Bow. Named after his deceased wife, Rachel Cottage, as it is known, also serves for holidays for nursery children.

1923

Enough money is saved to build the Children's House on Bruce Road which is opened by H.G. Wells. This building is laid upon Foundation Stones which represent:

VISION, NATURE, RHYTHM and MUSIC, BEAUTY, HEALTH, EDUCATION, MOTHERHOOD, INTERNATIONALISM and FELLOWSHIP.

Located on Bruce Road, Children 's House is still run as a Nursery School

1926

During the General Strikes of 1926, Kingsley Hall becomes a shelter and soup kitchen for workers.

1927

Larger accommodations are needed as the popularity of Kingsley Hall grows. A new Hall is built on Powis Road, with funds from people in the neighbourhood & donations from wealthy patrons.

A Stone-laying ceremony took place on July 14th, 1927. The follow people laid stones representing different aspects.

• Sir Walford Davies laid the brick of MUSIC
• Mr J.A.R Cairns laid the brick of CITIZENSHIP
• Miss Sybil Thorndike laid the brick of DRAMA
• Miss De Natorp laid the brick of EDUCATION
• Mrs D.S. Waterlow laid the brick of OPEN AIR and COUNTRY
• Mr C. Cowles Voysey laid the brick of ARCHITECTURE
• Mr P.R. LeMare laid the brick of COMMERCE
• Dr Maxwell Garnett laid the brick of WORLD BROTHERHOOD
• Miss Mary Arden Shakespeare laid the brick of FRIENDSHIP
• Mr John Galsworthy laid the brick of LITERATURE
• Mrs J. Douglas Watson laid the brick of the KINGDOM OF HEAVEN
• Margaret Martin laid the brick of KINGSLEY HALL CLUB
• George Lansbury laid the brick of SUNDAY EVENING SERVICE
• Mrs Harvey laid the brick of the WOMEN'S CLUB
• Tom McCarthy laid the brick of the WAYFARERS
• Mayor T.J.Goodway laid the brick of the BOROUGH
• Lady Clare Annesley laid the brick of SERVICE
• George L.M. Davies laid the brick of POLITICS
• Gilbert Bayes laid the brick of ART

  1928

The building includes residential units or cells, as Muriel Lester referred to them, including the one used later by Mahatma Gandhi. The building also has a clubroom and dining room, kitchen, office and a space of worship.

1931

Lylie Valentine was a participant in activities at the hall before she became a worker at the nursery. In her pamphlet: Two Sisters and the Cockney Kids, she recounts the excitement surrounding Gandhi’s stay in the East End:

"The same year (1931), Muriel told us that Mahatma Gandhi (at whose ashram she had stayed in India) was coming over for the Round Table Conference. He had refused to stay at a hotel, but would come if he could live with the working class, so he was to stay at Kingsley Hall....when he arrived, I think all the people in East London waited outside to see him.

"....besides doing his work with the Government, he spent a lot of time with us. He visited the Nursery School and all the children called him Uncle Gandhi. At six o'clock each morning, after his prayers, he took his walk along the canal, talking to workmen on the way.... There was something about him that always lives with the people."

Among his visitors Charlie Chaplin, the Pearly Queen and King of East London, and many politicians seek out Gandhi during his stay at Kingsley Hall. Gandhi lives at Kingsley Hall for 12 weeks, accompanied by a goat which provides him with milk.

1934

Muriel accompanies Mahatma Gandhi on his tour of earthquake-shaken regions in Bihar on his anti-untouchability tour.

1935

Ellen Wilkinson led the Jarrow March to London, and some of the men were put up from Kingsley Hall. Again, it was the poor helping the poor. They collected their pennies and opened the Jumble store for them. Muriel visits the Far East, USA, China, Japan and India to report to the League of Nations on drug investigations in the regions.

1958

Muriel Lester retires from full-time work. Attempts to secure aid for famine relief in India.

1963

Muriel Lester becomes a Freeman of the Borough of Poplar on her eightieth birthday. She dies in 1967.

R.D. Laing and Kingsley Hall

Following World War II, with the welfare state undertaking much of the work advocated by the Lester sisters, Kingsley Hall continues as a youth hostel and community activity centre on a quieter note.
1965. R.D. Laing and his colleagues ask the Lesters for use of the Hall as a community for themselves and a few people in a state of psychosis. As a result, Kingsley Hall, became home to one of the most radical experiments in psychology of the time.

Based on the notion that psychosis, a state of reality akin to living in awaking dream, is not an illness simply to be eliminated through the electric shocks favoured in the Western tradition of the time but, as in other cultures, a state of trance which could even be valued as mystical or Shamanistic, it sought to allow schizophrenic people the space to explore their madness and internal chaos.

One notable resident of this experiment was Mary Barnes. Along with resident psychiatrist Joseph Berke, Mary later went on to write "Two Accounts of a Journey Through Madness", describing her stay at Kingsley Hall and use of her mental condition as a vehicle for painting and creative expression. Her account became famous in the 1970's when it was used as the basis for a well-received theatre piece.

Unfortunately, given habits of residents in the 'no-holds barred ' experiment, to howl at night or walk into local pubs and finish all drinks on the table, the local community was largely hostile to the project. Windows were regularly smashed, faeces pushed through the letter box and residents harassed at local shops.

By 1970, after five years of the Philadelphia Association, named after the ancient city of brotherly love, Kingsley Hall was largely trashed and uninhabitable.

The 1980s

In the 1980's Kingsley Hall was the set for the film Gandhi. During the filming Richard Attenborough united with the Kingsley Hall Action Group to raise enough funds to carry out an extensive refurbishing. Many of the local community contributed their skills and commitment to bring Kingsley Hall back into a usable community centre.

Reopened in 1985

Kingsley Hall was reopened in February 1985, and has since gone on to be used for activities ranging from youth groups, holiday outings or arts and photography workshops, to advice work, wedding functions and educational projects. It also houses the office of the Gandhi Foundation, which pursues interests of peace internationally, in the tradition of its namesake.

In 1995, The Hall suffered two major burglaries and then vandals broke in and burnt down the offices. The committed staff and volunteers were devastated by this destruction, but continued to run youth groups, advice sessions, clubs and meetings. The new management interprets its remit as serving the local community and the cause of international peace and to do so in exciting and innovatory ways. Some of our current activities and groups include:

External Links

• Kingsley Hall webpage
• Gandhi Foundation