Conway Hall. By George Jelliss

Conway Hall at at 37 Red Lion Square, Bloomsbury, is the home of the South Place Ethical Society and today is a landmark of London’s independent intellectual, political and cultural life.

The Hall was built in 1926 on the site of a tenement, previously a factory. The Ethical Society moved here after 100 years at South Place in the City of London, to have a wider range of influence and greater scope for development.

According to an appeal pamphlet published in 1927, the new building would

help to enable the South Place Ethical Society to continue and increase its work and activities for a fuller and more vigorous moral, intellectual, and religious life…It is the aim of the Trustees and Committee to place at the disposal of the members and visitors from the Provinces, British Dominions, United States of America and other countries, Headquarters in the heart of London, where men and women of advanced thought could meet and enjoy the amenities of social discourse, with facilities for writing, rest and refreshment.

Plans were prepared for “a dignified and commodious building, which it is hoped may become the Headquarters of the Ethical Movement in the British Isles, and also provide an open platform for speakers from any part of the world.”

The Conway Hall was opened in 1929 and was named after Moncure Conway who led the Society from 1864–1885 and 1892–1897, during which time it moved further away from Unitarianism.

Conway Hall today

Conway Hall hosts a wide variety of lectures, meetings, classes, performances and community events.

The Conway Hall Library holds the Ethical Society’s collection which is largest and most comprehensive Humanist Research resource of its kind in the United Kingdom.

Visiting

Holburn is the nearest underground station to Conway Hall. The Hall is host to a number of public classes and lectures on a wide variety of topics and issues relating to ethics, rationalism, secularism and current affairs.

Also see…

• Conway Hall

Leicester Secular Hall. Photograph by George Jelliss

Leicester Secular Hall is a Grade II Listed Building built in 1881 for Leicester Secular Society.

Origins

In the 1840s and 50s Secularist lecturers were frequently denied the use of public meeting rooms, either because they were owned by religious bodies, or clerical authorities put pressure on lay landlords, and publicans were afraid for their licenses.

This led many secularist groups to build their own meeting places. The Secular Hall in Leicester is one of the few remaining and the only one still used by a Secular Society.

The immediate cause for planning the hall was the denial to George Jacob Holyoake, who had been a visitor to the town since l843, of the use of a public room at the ‘Three Crowns’ for a lecture in 1869.

Funds were raised by issuing shares in a Leicester Secular Hall Company to the members of the Society, although the majority of these were bought by two local business men Josiah Gimson and Michael Wright, and it was Gimson who engaged the architect, W. Larner Sugden of Leeke, whose design was described as ‘a free treatment of Flemish Renaissance’.

Architecture

A prominent feature above the entrances to the Hall are five terracotta busts, sculpted by Ambrose Louis Vago, representing, from right to left, not quite in chronological order, Socrates, Jesus, Thomas Paine, Voltaire and Robert Owen. The busts of Paine and Owen are the earliest memorial representations of these men in the country.

The inclusion of the bust of Jesus caused considerable controversy at the time, which was probably the intention.

Often overlooked are three panels higher on the walls with Masonic symbols depicting Liberty, Justice and Truth.

Opening

Leicester Secular Hall interior showing photographs of Charles Bradlaugh and others on display. Photograph courtesy of Leicester Secular Society

At the Opening of Secular Hall on Sunday 6th of March 1881, three meetings were held, morning, afternoon and night. Many of the leaders of the secuular movement were there.

In the morning Josiah Gimson gave the inaugural address. Annie Besant and George Jacob Holyoake also spoke. In the afternoon Theodore Wright presided and Charles Bradlaugh and Harriet Law spoke. R. A. Cooper of Norwich took the chair at the evening meeting; this was so crowded that an overflow meeting was held in the club room below, where the speeches were repeated. Bradlaugh, Mrs. Besant and Holyoake spoke.

For the opening of the Hall, the poet James Thomson had written a poem which was recited at each meeting by Mrs. Theodore Wright (who was a prominent actress of the period). Holyoake’s address, afterwards published separately in pamphlet form was on Secularism, a religion which gives heaven no trouble.

Continuing to today

Both of the founders, Gimson and Wright, died soon after the opening of the Hall. However one of Gimson’s sons, Sydney Ansell Gimson, remained President of the Society until 1938. When the Secular Hall Company was closed down, the ownership of the hall was transferred to a Leicester Rationalist Trust in 1907.

Many luminaries have spoken at the hall over the years, including Peter Kropotkin, William Morris, George Bernard Shaw and Bertrand Russell.

From the opening of the Hall the right-hand frontage was occupied by a freethought bookshop, run by William Henry Holyoak – no relation to G.J. – who was a founder member of the Society. It remained a radical bookshop until quite recently, although under various different managements.

For many years now the meetings of the Society have been held in the ground floor room (formerly the Club room) with the upper floor being let out to a Dance School, and the basement to a Karate Club.

The current President, Allan Hayes, has attempted to obtain Heritage Lottery funds for much-needed regeneration of the building, such as disabled access, but the present financial crisis throws this into question.

Visiting

Most Leicester Secular Society lectures and meetings are held at the Hall, 75 Humberstone Gate, Leicester LE1 1WB. All are welcome.

See also…

• Leicester Secular Hall

Gower Street London

Gower Street is a street in Bloomsbury, Central London on which can be found several sites of humanist heritage.

In the middle is University College London, founded in 1826 on secular, inclusive  principles.

At 110 Gower Street (previously 12 Upper Gower Street) Charles Darwin lived and worked 1838-1841.

At 1 Gower Street are the current offices of the British Humanist Association and the Rationalist Press Association.

Visiting

Gower Street is a public street.

Methodist Central Hall

Methodist Central Hall is a Methodist church in the City of Westminster, London, opened in 1912 as a monument to mark the centenary of John Wesley’s death, the founder of Methodism.

From 1932 to 2000, Central Hall was the headquarters of the Methodist Church.

It has been regularly used for political rallies and Bertrand Russell lectured here.

Visiting

View the Methodist Central Hall website for details of events and services.

Also see…

• Methodist Central Hall website

Ullet Road Chapel © Mr John Taylor

The Ullet Road Unitarian Chapel is known as the English ‘cathedral of Unitarianism’. It was built between 1896 and 1898 to a design by the Unitarian architect Thomas Worthington and his son Percy.

Although founded as a non-conformist Christian faith, Unitarianism has historically been characterised by a rationalist and individualist approach to spirituality, which encompasses diverse religious views. In its anti-dogmatism, it has come to include atheist views, particularly under the banner of Unitarian Universalism in the twentieth century.

Built to accommodate the growing congregation of the Renshaw Street Chapel in central Liverpool, the Ullet Road Chapel is in the Neo-Gothic style, and also incorporates a number of decorative elements in the Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts styles.

The vestry ceiling features four painted roundels by the English mural painter Gerald Moira, representing the virtues of Justice, Prudence, Temperance and Charity, while the library features a mural, also by Moira, depicting ‘The Pursuit of Truth’.

The adjoining church hall was built in 1901 and contains monuments to some of the Chapel’s former attendees. These include a bust of the historian and patron of the arts William Roscoe, and memorials to the merchant and philanthropist William Rathbone and to Unitarian minister and scholar Charles Beard.

Visiting

Now Grade I listed, the Chapel is still operating as a Unitarian centre where ideas of faith and spirituality are actively explored.

Also see…

• Ullet Road Unitarian Chapel on English Heritage’s ‘Images of England’
• Ullet Road Unitarian Chapel on Wikipedia
• Unitarians in Britain

Statue of Fenner Brockway in Red Lion Square. Photograph by George Jellis

This small square contains memorials to two notable humanists – a statue of  activist and politician Fenner Brockway and a bust of philosopher Bertrand Russell.

The north east corner of the Square features the main entrance to Conway Hall, home of the South Place Ethical Society since 1929.

The Square is also rumoured to have been the resting place of Oliver Cromwell’s severed head.

Visiting

The square is a small, pleasant garden park open to the public. It is a few minutes walk from Holborn tube and contains an open air cafe.

Also see…

• An extensive history of the square at British History Online
• Red Lion Square on Wikipedia
• www.conwayhall.org.uk
• www.ethicalsoc.org.uk