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A political history of Britain in the places where it happened: parliament and palace, courts and counting houses, and the streets where people pushed back.
The East End settlement where the welfare state was partly worked out.
Protest & dissentIdeas & memory
Samuel and Henrietta Barnett founded it in 1884 on a simple and radical premise: that university men should come and live in the East End among the poverty they meant to do something about, rather than visiting it. It was the first settlement of its kind, and the model spread across Britain and to America, where Jane Addams took it to Chicago as Hull House. The people who passed through did the rest. William Beveridge, whose 1942 report designed the welfare state, was sub-warden here from 1903 to 1905; Clement Attlee, who built it as prime minister, lived here from 1910. Free legal advice began in this building, and so did the habit of treating poverty as something to be measured.
A working charity rather than an attraction; heritage tours are arranged through its events team.
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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.