The Mary Ward Centre is an adult education college in
Stratford, London
Stratford is a town and district of West Ham, East London, England, in the London Borough of Newham. Part of the Lower Lea Valley, it is northeast of Charing Cross, and includes Maryland and East Village.
Historically an ancient parish in ...
.
History
The centre was founded by
Mary Augusta Ward
Mary Augusta Ward (''née'' Arnold; 11 June 1851 – 24 March 1920) was a British literature, British novelist who wrote under her married name as Mrs Humphry Ward. She worked to improve education for the poor, setting up a Mary Ward Centre, ...
, a
Victorian novelist and founding president of the
Women's National Anti-Suffrage League
The Women's National Anti-Suffrage League (1908–18) was established in London on 21 July 1908. Its aims were to oppose women being granted the voting, vote in parliamentary elections, although it did support their having votes in local govern ...
, better known by her married name Mrs Humphry Ward. The original name of the institution was the Passmore Edwards Settlement, as it was part of the
settlement movement
The settlement movement was a reformist social movement that began in the 1880s and peaked around the 1920s in the United Kingdom and the United States. Its goal was to bring the rich and the poor of society together in both physical proximity an ...
, and was financed by
John Passmore Edwards
John Passmore Edwards (24 March 1823 – 22 April 1911)ODNB article by A. J. A. Morris, 'Edwards, John Passmore (1823–1911)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 200 accessed 15 Nove ...
. The settlement began in 1890 as University Hall, located in
Gordon Square
Gordon Square is a public park square in Bloomsbury, London, England. It is part of the Bedford Estate and was designed as one of a pair with the nearby Tavistock Square. It is owned by the University of London.
History and buildings
The sq ...
, Bloomsbury.
Its 1898 building – still named
Mary Ward House – is located just off
Tavistock Square
Tavistock Square is a public square in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden near Euston Station.
History
Tavistock Square was built shortly after 1806 by the property developer James Burton and the master builder Thomas Cubitt for Fr ...
, also in Bloomsbury. It was designed by
Arnold Dunbar Smith
Arnold Dunbar Smith (2 December 18667 December 1933) was an English architect who in 1897 formed Smith & Brewer (18971949) with Cecil Claude Brewer (18711918) who were responsible for the design of the Mary Ward House in London (1899) and the ...
and Cecil Claude Brewer and is
listed at Grade I. It is considered to be a masterpiece of late
Victorian architecture
Victorian architecture is a series of Revivalism (architecture), architectural revival styles in the mid-to-late 19th century. ''Victorian'' refers to the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901), called the Victorian era, during which period the st ...
and one of the best
Arts and Crafts
The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the Decorative arts, decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and ...
buildings in London.
[Article on the Architects, with portraits of them](_blank)
. (accessed 24 February 2008).
In a speech to mark the opening of the Settlement in 1898 Mary Ward stated its mission as: "education, social intercourse, and debate of the wider sort, music, books, pictures, travel". She added: "It is these that make life rich and animated, that ease the burden of it, that stand perpetually between a man and a woman and the darker, coarser temptations of our human road".
Over time the activities at the Settlement expanded to include fully equipped classrooms for children with disabilities, one of the first in England, pioneering the importance of play within children's education,
[ the equivalent of an after school club, a youth club for teenagers and a centre for pre- and ante-natal advice, among many others.]East London
East London is the part of London, England, east of the ancient City of London and north of the River Thames as it begins to widen. East London developed as London Docklands, London's docklands and the primary industrial centre. The expansion of ...
. In the letter, students were told that the organisation had purchased a new building in Queensway House on Stratford High Street, citing the "unaffordable" cost of its current location and the need for specialist educational provision in East London as factors influencing the decision to move.
National Institute for Social Work Training, London.jpg, Mary Ward House, the organisation's home from 1898
Mary Ward Centre Adult Education College.jpg, The centre's home from 1982 to 2023 in converted 18th-century houses at 42 Queen Square
Present
Since September 2023 the Mary Ward Adult Education Centre has been based on Stratford High Street in East London.
The Mary Ward Legal Centre is based at 10 Great Turnstile in Holborn
Holborn ( or ), an area in central London, covers the south-eastern part of the London Borough of Camden and a part (St Andrew Holborn (parish), St Andrew Holborn Below the Bars) of the Wards of the City of London, Ward of Farringdon Without i ...
. The Mary Ward Legal Centre provides free, independent advice to people who live and work in London to help them access their legal rights and entitlements.
Artworks
The Mary Ward Centre houses a portrait of John Passmore Edwards by Felix Moscheles.
See also
* Guild of Play
References
External links
Mary Ward (Adult Education) Centre website
(accessed 8 October 2009).
Mary Ward Settlement – part of the London Metropolitan Archives Collection
(accessed 26 November 2013)
{{Coord, 51.5365, -0.0035, type:edu_region:GB-CMD, display=title
Further education colleges in London
Education in the London Borough of Camden
Education in the London Borough of Newham
Learning and Skills Beacons
Adult education in the United Kingdom