Oxford House (settlement)

Oxford House in Bethnal Green, London was established in September 1884 as one of the first "settlements" by Oxford University as a High-Anglican Church of England counterpart to Toynbee Hall, established around the same time at Whitechapel.

Arising out of the philanthropic and social movement of the mid-Victorian age which had found support at the University of Oxford and from the Tractarianism (or Oxford Movement) of the High Anglican Church, the settlement movement sprang up primarily from the work of the Barnetts (Samuel, rector of Whitechapel, and his wife Henrietta), whose pioneering view saw the first steps to establishing Toynbee Hall. This was considered by some at Oxford, led by the Warden of Keble College, Edward Talbot, "not sufficiently religious enough" and it was this group of Oxford men who looked to provide a more ascetic, denominationally religious, settlement in the East End of London. The first premises used under the Oxford House name was the National Day School of the parish church of St Andrew at Bethnal Green, which provided lodgings for three or four graduates to reside and work in the local neighbourhood, providing help and assistance to the poor and dispossessed of the surrounding area through a variety of activities including boys' clubs, a "talk and smoke" club for working men, and Sunday afternoon Bible lectures.

The appointment of Arthur Winnington-Ingram as Head of Oxford House in 1889 and the ever-widening popularity of the programmes being run by the Oxford House necessitated a move to more substantial property. In a substantial fundraising effort, along with several Oxford luminaries, including Henry Scott Holland's rallying-cry, "come and be the squires of East London" and Winnington-Ingram's plea to Oxford men that "if they would not come and live in Bethnal Green, they must at least supply a house for those who would." The appeal raised enough capital to purchase the land on which Oxford House now stands, and construct a solid red-brick 5-storey building, designed by the renowned architect Sir Arthur Blomfield. It was opened by the Duke of Connaught in 1892, and designated a Grade II listed building in 2011.

...
Wikipedia