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

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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

University College London

University College London was founded in 1826, opening up education to wider social groups than those permittted into Oxford and Cambridge including men who were not members of the Church of England. In 1878 it became the first British educational establishment to admit women on equal terms with men.

Although commonly believed to be a founder, Jeremy Bentham was really only a ‘spiriitual ‘ father – many of the founders held him in high esteem and the university embodied many of his principles on inclusive education.

Visiting

University College London is situated on Gower Street in London. It is open to public. See website for details.

Also see…

• University College London website
• Wikipedia article on University College London

Would you like to write it for us?

Humanist Heritage relies on contributions from users so if you’re interested in helping us please drop us a line.

Down House. Photograph by Stommy

Home of Charles Darwin.

On 17 September 1842 Darwin closed the door of Macaw Cottage, 12 Upper Gower Street, in London, and boarded his horse-drawn carriage for the two-hour journey to his new home, in the village of Down in Kent (now Downe in the Greater London Borough of Bromley).

Down House was originally a farmhouse, and later a parsonage. Over the forty years he lived there Darwin made extensive changes not only to the house but also to the surrounding area. One of his first projects was, with permission of the parishioners, to lower the lane that ran past his study window, and build a wall to ensure his privacy. He also put up a mirror to espy callers approaching the front door.

The alterations to the building were in part to accommodate his expanding family. These included a kitchen wing with a schoolroom above, and another wing including a drawing room with verandah overlooking the garden and with bedrooms upstairs.

It was on a strip of land, originally rented from his neighbour Sir John Lubbock, that he planted trees to shelter the house and laid out his famous thinking path, the Sandwalk.

It was his neighbour’s son, also Sir John, by then President of the Linnaean Society, who in 1882 was influential in arranging his burial in Westminster Abbey. Darwin’s own choice would have been to be buried alongside his brother Erasmus, in St Mary’s churchyard, Downe, where his wife Emma and several of their children are also buried.

Visiting

Only 16 miles from the center of London, in Downe, Down House, now under the management of English Heritage.

Also see…

• Down House on English Heritage website (including virtual tour)
• Down House panoramas on BBC Online
• Down House on Wikipedia

Brixton Prison. Photograph by sarflondondunc

Her Majesty’s Prison (HMP) Brixton is a prison in London, built in 1819.

Bertrand Russell was imprisoned here in 1961 for his part in a Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament demonstration in London.

Visiting

The prison is still in use and so not open to the general public.

Also see…

• Brixton Prison on Wikipedia
• Her Majesty’s Prison Service

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

London School of Economics main entrance

The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is one of the foremost social science universities in the world.

Bertrand Russell lectured here.

Visiting

Located in central London, LSE is easily accessible by a range of transport including underground (tube), rail, bus and car.

Also see…

• London School of Economics website

Palace of Westminster

The Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace, is the meeting place of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom—the House of Lords and the House of Commons.

A number of prominent humanists and secularists have sat in each houses. One of them – Charles Bradlaugh – was the last person to be  imprisoned in a cell in the Palace’s Clock Tower.

House of Commons

Henry Broughton stood in parliament via the pocket borough of Camelford controlled by a Whig aristocrat 1810-1812. He returned in 1815 via another pocket boorough, Winchelsea.

William Johnson Fox intermittently represented Oldham in Parliament as a Liberal from 1847 to 1862. As a supporter of the Anti-Corn-Law movement he won celebrity as an impassioned orator and journalist.

John Stuart Mill as Member of Parliament for City and Westminster 1865-1866. In 1866 he became the first person in Parliament to call for women to be given the right to vote.

Charles Bradlaugh was Member of Parliament for Northampton 1880-1891 after a long struggle to take his seat (see below).

Viscount Morley was Liberal Member of Parliament for Newcastle upon Tyne 1883 – 1895 and later Montrose Burghs.

John M Robertson was Liberal Member of Parliament for Tyneside 1906 – 1918.

Clement Attlee was Labour Member of Parliament for Limehouse 1922 – 1955. He was Prime Minster 1945 – 1951.

House of Lords

Henry Broughton was given a peerage in1830 and became Lord Chancellor in Lord Grey’s new Whig government.

Viscount Morley was a peer between 1910 (where he served as Lord President of the Council) until the outbreak of war in 1914.

Bertrand Russell was the 3rd Earl Russell 1931-1970.

Clement Attlee sat in the Lords from 1955 until his death in 1967.

In 1958 Russell and Attlee were amongst a group of notables to establish the Homosexual Law Reform Society, which campaigned for the decriminalisation of homosexual acts in private by consenting adults, a reform which was voted through parliament nine years later.

Charles Bradlaugh – fighting for atheists to take their place in the commons

Charles Bradlaugh – who in 1866 helped to establish the National Secular Society – tried several times to be elected to represent Northampton in Parliament. He was eventually elected in 1880, but as he was not a Christian he asked for permission to affirm rather the oath of office. The Speaker of the House of Commons refused this request and Bradlaugh was expelled from Parliament. William Gladstone, the Prime Minister, supported Bradlaugh’s right to affirm, but he had upset a lot of people with his views on Christianity, the monarchy and birth control and when the issue was put before Parliament, MPs voted to support the Speaker’s decision to expel him.

Bradlaugh now mounted a national campaign in favour of atheists being allowed to sit in the House of Commons. Bradlaugh gained some support from some Nonconformists but he was strongly opposed by the Conservative Party and the leaders of the Anglican and Catholic clergy. When Bradlaugh attempted to take his seat in Parliament in June 1880, he was arrested by the Sergeant-at-Arms and imprisoned in the Tower of London. Benjamin Disraeli, leader of the Conservative Party, warned that Bradlaugh would become a martyr and it was decided to release him.

On 26th April, 1881, Charles Bradlaugh was once again refused permission to affirm. William Gladstone promised to bring in legislation to enable Bradlaugh to do this, but this would take time. Bradlaugh was unwilling to wait and when he attempted to take his seat on 2nd August he was once forcibly removed from the House of Commons. Bradlaugh and his supporters organised a national petition and on 7th February, 1882, he presented a list of 241,970 signatures calling for him to be allowed to take his seat. However, when he tried to take the Parliamentary oath, he was once again removed from Parliament.

Gladstone’s Affirmation Bill was discussed by Parliament in the spring of 1883. The Archbishop of Canterbury and Cardinal Manning, head of the Catholic Church, argued against the right of atheists to be MPs and when the vote was taken in May 1883, the Affirmation Bill was defeated. In 1884 Bradlaugh was once again elected to represent Northampton in the House of Commons. He took his seat and voted three times before he was excluded. He was later fined £1,500 for voting illegally.

Bradlaugh decided to try again to take the oath on 13th January, 1886. The new Speaker, Sir Arthur Wellesley Peel, did not object, arguing that he had to authority to interfere with the oath-taking.

The ‘umbrella’ British Humanist Association

In 1963 the Rationalist Press Association and the Ethical Union decided to sponsor an ‘umbrella’ British Humanist Association (a precursor of the actual British Humanist Association) and its inaugural meeting took place in 1963 in the House of Commons with Sir Julian Huxley, A. J. Ayer, and Baroness Wootton among those present.

Visiting

Parliament is open to all members of the UK public and overseas visitors. You can attend debates and watch committee hearings, tour the buildings or climb the famous Clock Tower and see Big Ben.

Also see…

• www.parliament.uk
• epolitix.com: From Attlee to Adam Smith