Open House 2011
Guided tours of Kingsley Hall in Bromley-by-Bow (Kingsley Hall, Powis Rd, London E3 3HJ). Tours every hour from 12.00 to 4:00pm, including Gandhi’s cell. Heritage displays - Cafe: Vegetarian curry, soup, refreshments.
The sisters Muriel and Doris Lester set up the first Kingsley Hall in 1915 in a disused chapel. The present building, (Charles Cowles Voysey, 1928), was designed to be a social and educational centre and community church, with living accommodation for ten volunteer workers. The sisters also founded pioneer nursery school Children’s House (Cowles Voysey, 1923) and Kingsley Hall in Dagenham.
Kingsley Hall has just completed a major heritage project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund to make accessible the Muriel Lester Collection that currently is held at Bishopsgate Institution. The project created the tapestry below and much more that will be on display, also oral interviews of many people who had met Muriel and Doris.
