Oxford House in Bethnal Green

On last night's Newsnight there was an item on the renovation of the East End, including the Eton Mission which was an "outpost" of the famous public school in the East End, working particularly to help young people before the First World War.  Toynbee Hall was a similar "mission" set up by Balliol College.  Recently I went to have a look at Oxford House in Bethnal Green which was a mission set up by Keble College Oxford and run along High Anglican lines.

Above:  the red brick building in Derbyshire Street was designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield and opened by the Duke of Connaught in 1892.  It has recently been listed Grade II.  The aim of the mission was to physically place university graduates in the East End and give them social projects to carry out.

Above:  the chapel on the top floor of the building.  Empty now, as a High Church establishment it would have been richly furnished.  Apart from the chapel life in the building must have been very austere.

Above:  memorial to Douglas Eyre.  As well as founding Oxford House he is listed as founder of the Webbe Institute and the network of Working Mens' Clubs.  Other memorials recorded other Oxford House personnel displaying similar virtues of humility, charity and service.

Above:  looking out of one of the casement windows on the stairs.  The crushing institutional nature of the building was overwhelming.  Did the High Anglican acolytes who immured themselves in Oxford House ever question what they were doing with their lives? (nothing now remains of their work).

Above:  opposite Oxford House was Weavers Field, an open park.  Although my father came from Limehouse and my grandfather came from Bethnal Green this was the first time I had been in the East End (Docklands doesn't count).  I was surprised at how pleasant it all looked, and how at home I felt.

Above:  the Star of Bethlehem pub in Bethnal Green Road.  Oscar Wilde said: "work is the curse of the drinking classes".  My grandfather, who I never met, was described to me as a brilliant and innovative engineer, inventor of several patents, whose life was ruined by drink (when he died aged 55 the biggest wreath came from the Chandos pub - not sure where this pub was, other than it was in the East End).

Above:  social housing (built 1937) off the Bethnal Green Road.  Nice arrangement of vertical and horizontal lines.  Norden House is on the left, Newcourt House is straight ahead, the slender buttresses on the right belong to a non-conformist church.

Above:  more social housing (built 1922) by Bethnal Green tube - these people were not afraid to put their names on the project.

Above:  the appearance of the buildings on the Bethnal Green Estate is impressive - brick, wrought iron, foliage.

Above:  another view of the 1922 Bethnal Green Estate. 

A 'phone call meant I had to go back to the West End so I didn't have time to see the "Lenin Estate" - social housing put up by a communist-influenced Council in 1927 (renamed Cambridge Heath Estate by a later Liberal administration).  Originally the council tried to ban Jewish people from becoming tenants of the Lenin Estate - so much for the Left's multicultural solidarity.