Slumming

by Koven, Seth

  194. For this debate, see the Minutes of the Oxford House Club and the Minutes of the Council of Oxford House, July–September 1897. Oxford House University Settlement Papers.

  195. Ibid.

  196. A. F. Winnington Ingram, New Testament Difficulties, 1st ser. (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1901), 70.

  197. See Arthur F. Winnington Ingram, “One Bread,” in Banners of the Christian Faith (London: Well Gardner, Darton and Co., 1899), esp. 166–169.

  198. The phrase comes from Gerard Fiennes’s description of the need for male settlers to balance “perfect equality” with deference in their dealings with working-class men. See Gerard Fiennes, “The Federation of Working Men’s Social Clubs: What It Is, And What It May Be,” in Knapp, The Universities and the Social Problem, 218–219.

  199. Gertrude Himmelfarb stresses Toynbee Hall’s role as a beacon of civic communitarian values and its shaping of a “citizenship that made tolerable all those other social distinctions which were natural and inevitable.” While I concur with Himmelfarb that in many respects Toynbee was “an experiment in democracy—which was no mean feat at that time and place,” she minimizes the constraints and limitations of this vision and ignores entirely the gender and sexual politics of the settlement movement. In part, this is because Himmelfarb’s analysis is based entirely on the idealistic rhetoric of the movement and not on its social history. See Gertrude Himmelfarb, Poverty and Compassion: The Moral Imagination of the Late Victorians (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991), 235– 243. Standish Meacham, by contrast, stresses the hierarchical nature of Toynbee Hall and its failure to live up to its own communitarian ideals. But Meacham obscures the negotiated character of relations between rich and poor and the evolution of the settlement over time, as well as the settlement’s daring experimentation with new conceptions of masculinity. See Standish Meacham, Toynbee Hall and Social Reform 1880–1914: The Search for Community (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1987).

  200. Tape-recorded interview, Mandy Ashworth interviewing Sir Guy and Molly Clutton-Brock, 1984. Tape and transcript, Oxford House University Settlement Papers.

  201. The quote comes from Morris’s 1885 “Manifesto for the Socialist League,” reprinted as appendix 1 in E. P. Thompson, William Morris (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1955).

  202. There is a strong body of scholarship on imperial manliness that considers a similar configuration of issues in organizations such as the Boy Scouts and among bachelor imperial military warriors. See contributions by John Springhall, Jeffrey Richards, J. A. Mangan, John MacKenzie, and Allen Warren in an early and still important contribution to the study of masculinity, J. A. Mangan and James Walvin, eds., Manliness and Morality: Middle-Class Masculinities in Britain and America, 1800–1940 (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1987). Many settlers praised the heroic sacrifices of bachelor imperial war heroes, especially General Gordon. See Winnington Ingram’s homage to Gordon in “Self-Sacrifice unto Death,” in Arthur F. Winnington Ingram, The Attractiveness of Goodness (London: Wells Gardner, Darton and Co., 1913), 64–80; Toynbee settler Robert Morant likewise worshipped Gordon and read his “Noble Diary” for inspiration. See Bernard M. Allen, Sir Robert Morant: A Great Public Servant (London: Macmillan, 1934), 63. On the tensions between the “primitive” and “civilization” in sexology’s construction of desire, see Merl Storr, “Transformations: Subjects, Categories, and Cures in Krafft-Ebing’s Sexology,” in Lucy Bland and Laura Doan, eds., Sexology in Culture: Labelling Bodies and Desires (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998), 14.

  203. Edward Cummings “University Settlements,” Quarterly Journal of Economics (April 1892), 257.

  204. On Knight-Bruce and Carey’s contributions to the church in South Africa, see Peter Hinchliff, The Anglican Church in South Africa (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1963), chs. 6–8; James R. Cochrane, Servants of Power: The Role of English-Speaking Churches in South Africa, 1903–1930 (Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1987), esp. ch. 5. See also Edward Norman, Christianity in the Southern Hemisphere: The Churches in Latin America and South Africa (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981), ch. 4.

  205. See Walter Carey, Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity (London: Allen, 1918), 91.

  206. Walter Carey, Good-Bye to My Generation (London: A. R. Mowbray, 1951), 37, 50, 52, 57. I should add that Carey did defend the rights of people of color in South Africa against many of the worst abuses of the emerging system of apartheid.

  207. Tape recorded interview, Mandy Ashworth interviewing Fred Gore, April 3, 1984, Oxford House University Settlement Papers.

  CONCLUSION

  1. From the outset, the media framed debates around Faith in the City as a struggle over Victorian values. See “Higher Capital, Current Spending Key to Rescue, Church of England Report ‘Faith in the City,’” Guardian (December 3, 1985). The term Urban Priority Area (UPA) was a self-conscious attempt to break away from the word “slum” with its links to the Victorian past and the world of slumming.

  2. Controversy surrounded the use of the word “Marxist” to describe the report’s findings. See Colin Brown, “Minister Attacks Church on Inner City Aid,” Guardian (December 2, 1985). Runcie denied that the report was Marxist and claimed that “its enthusiasm for small business and local enterprise could be described as Thatcherite.” Runcie as quoted in Walter Schwarz and James Naughtie, “Church Confident Attack on Report Has Flopped,” Guardian (December 4, 1985). Ian Aitkin described the Faith in the City affair as a “deliberate carefully planned self-inflicted wound” to the Conservative party. See Ian Aitken, “Agenda: Points of Order, Church of England Report on Inner Cities,” Guardian (December 6, 1985). Aitken traced the short history of the use of the word “Marxist.” See John Torode, “Working Brief: The Gospel with a Sense of Salvation, The Church of England’s Inner Cities Report,” Guardian (December 17, 1985). Most articles in the Times were highly critical of the report, criticizing it for murky theology and moonshine optimism. Its initial leader article on the report claimed that the latter did not even represent the views of the church itself. See “A Flawed Faith, Focus on Report from Archbishop of Canterbury’s Commission on Inner Cities,” Times (December 3, 1985); see also Ronald Butt, “No Faith in This Cure for Poverty,” Times (December 5, 1985); see also David Watt, “Church Report—The Real Flaw, Faith in the City Controversy,” Times (December 20, 1985).

  3. Faith in the City, A Call for Action by Church and Nation (London: Church House Publishing, 1985), 25.

  4. See George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury, “Christianity and Citizenship,” Roscoe Century 21 Lectures, Liverpool John Moores University, February 23, 2000. As he campaigned to unseat the Conservative government in the autumn of 1996, Tony Blair declared that “the essential challenge posed by Faith in the City remains unanswered: do we have the confidence and the ideas as a nation to achieve prosperity with fairness in the next century?” See Tony Blair, “Battle for Britain,” Guardian (January 29, 1996). The leader of the Conservative opposition, William Hague, criticized Faith in the City in his Wilberforce Lecture in November 1998. See William Hague, “Podium—We Are a Nation of Churches,” Independent (November 20, 1998). Faith in the City spawned many local studies and publications as well such as H. Russell, ed., Faith in Our City (1987) on Liverpool and Faith in the City of Birmingham (1988). For an assessment of its impact, see Anthony Dyson, “Faith in the City, Ten Years On,” The Way: Identity and Change (January 1994), 210–220.

  5. Faith in the City, xiv, 9.

  6. See Hugo Young, “Commentary: No Government Answer to Faith in the City,” Guardian (December 5, 1985).

  7. Faith in the City, 5, 31.

  8. George Lansbury, My Life (London: Constable and Co., 1928), 129–131.

  9. See G. S. Jones, Outcast London: A Study in the Relationship between Classes in Victorian Society (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971; New York: Pantheon Books, 1984); Standish Meacham, Toynbee Hall and Social Reform 1880–1914: The Search for Community (New Haven: Yale Un
iversity Press, 1987); Asa Briggs and Ann Macartney, Toynbee Hall: The First One Hundred Years (London: Routledge & K. Paul, 1984).

  10. George Dangerfield, The Strange Death of Liberal England, 1910–1914 (New York: H. Smith and R. Haas, 1935), 56.

  11. See Arthur Mejia, “Lord Hugh Cecil: Religion and Liberty” for the first and as yet only academic analysis of Cecil’s ideology, in J. A. Thompson and Arthur Mejia, eds., Edwardian Conservatism: Five Studies in Adaptation (London: Croom Helm, 1988). For Conservative views on social service, brotherhood, and democracy reminiscent of Hugh Cecil’s, see Stanley Baldwin, Our Inheritance: Speeches and Addresses (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran and Co., 1928), 239–254. As Baldwin explained, “we are not all equal, and never shall be; the true postulate of democracy is not equality but the faith that every man and woman is worthwhile” (252). For Baldwin on the “handclasp of brotherhood,” see report of a speech he gave in Merthyr Tydfil, July 18, 1938, in Times (July 19, 1938), 9.

  12. Speeches reprinted in “Oxford House in Bethnal Green, Meeting in New College Hall,” Oxford House Chronicle (June 1907), 3.

  13. See Clement Attlee, “A Speech at a Luncheon of the National Association of Boys’ Clubs,” in Purpose and Policy, Selected Speeches by the Rt. Hon. C. R. Attlee (London: Hutchinson, [1947]), 87–90.

  14. See Clement Attlee, “A Speech to the House of Commons on the Second Reading of the National Insurance Bill,” in Purpose and Policy, 98.

  15. See Attlee’s contribution to Why I Am a Democrat, A Symposium, ed. Richard Acland (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1939); on cultural values and class, see Clement Attlee, The Social Worker (London: G. Bell and Sons, 1920), esp. 129–130.

  16. William Beveridge to Annette Beveridge, January 25, 1903, and May 11, 1903, IIa, Beveridge Papers.

  INDEX

  All clergymen are listed as “Rev.” regardless of the clerical office held.

  Aarons, Joseph: and Katherine Buildings, 13

  Acorn, George (pseudo.): on elite slum philanthropy, 298n41

  Adams, C. V.: and Guild of Handicraft, 277

  Adams, James Eli: on dandy and ascetic, 104; on male secrets, 371n173

  Addams, Jane, 196; as slum tourist in Whitechapel, 8

  Adderley, James Granville, 1–3; as ecclesiastical young man, 2; on fashionable slumming, 6; heterodoxy of, 1, 3; and Muriel Wragge, 218; and New Floreat, 295n23; and New Man, 273, 275; and Oscar Wilde, 257; at Oxford House, 2, 244, 249; sexual ambiguity of, 274; social background of, 2; on women’s charity, 7

  aesthetic philanthropy, 208, 241, 257, 269; and Barnetts, 237

  aestheticism: definition of, 230; and homoeroticism, 262–263, 268–270, 272; of Jay, 257; as masculine style, 240; Paterian, 250; and queerness, 364n95; Ruskinian, 250; and social reform, 241, 254; and Toynbee Hall, 241, 243–245, 250, 257, 259, 275; Vernon Lee’s criticisms of, 213; and worship at Oxford House, 254–255

  age of consent legislation: in Britain and India, 330n126

  Albert, Prince: on Chartism, 232

  Alexandra, Princess of Wales, 128

  Alger Horatio: and Ragged Dick, 371n166

  Alice, Princess of Hesse: and slumming, 10

  All Sorts and Conditions of Men (W. Besant, 1882), 217

  Allen, Grant, 336n47

  “Almighty Dollar in London Society” (Banks, 1894), 170–171

  altruism: and eros, 3–4, 6–7, 14, 18, 71, 120, 138, 284; and self-interest, 159– 160; Havelock Ellis on, 72; Harkness’s skepticism about, 168

  “Amateur Casual,” 26, 141, 157, 158. See also Greenwood, James

  amateurism: as gentlemanly ideal, 37–38 “American Girl”: Banks as, 140–141, 144, 155; debates about, 171–173

  American heiress: Banks’s masquerade as, 170

  American identity, 155, 175, 177; British ideas about, 170

  American journalism. See journalism, American style

  American Woman’s Home Journal: on Banks, 146

  anachronistic space, 61; Anne McClintock on, 312n120

  Andrews, Mrs.: accusation by, against Fitzgerald, 105–106; and Barnardo, 106, 108

  Anglican sisterhoods, 203

  Anglo-American Times: and Banks, 143

  Anglo-Catholicism, 242; aesthetics of, 254–255. See also High Churchmanship; ritualism

  anti-Catholicism, 255

  anti-suffrage: and Mary Kingsley, 150

  anthropology: Victorian, 61

  Argyle, Jesse, 11

  Arnold, Matthew, 74, 236; as dandy, 75; and masquerade, 77; on New Journalism, 171; social criticism of, 74–76; on “Workhouse Casual,” 76

  Art Journal: on Barnardo’s rescue work, 117

  “artistic fictions”: Barnardo’s, 88, 91, 113, 115–117, 133. See also photographs, “representative”

  arts and crafts movement, 244, 246

  Ascent of Woman (Devereux, 1896), 222–23

  asceticism: and Adderley, 2; and Barnardo, 104; definition of, 230; of mission priests, 238; at Oxford House, 252, 275; Samuel Barnett’s rejection of, 237–239; Scott Holland on, 254; and social reform, 254

  Ashbee, Charles Robert, 250, 264–269, 277–279; on Carlyle, 233; on cross-class brotherhood, 234, 278–279; decoration of Toynbee Hall dining room by, 265; on Guild and School of Handicraft, 230, 265–268, 277; and Janet Ashbee, 269; journals of, 275; and Samuel Barnett, 265–266; sexuality of, 268; and Toynbee Hall, 230, 264–266; and Winnington Ingram, 260–277; and working-class boys, 244–245, 265–266, 268

  Asquith, Henry Herbert, 270, 286

  Asquith, Margot (Tennant), 183

  Astor, Nancy, 288

  Atalanta: and Mrs. L. T. Meade, 215

  Atherton, Gertrude, 171

  Attlee, Clement: in Limehouse, 288; Toynbee Hall experiences of, 287

  Auerbach, Nina: on “old maids,” 349n71

  Autobiography of a “Newspaper Girl” (Banks, 1902), 142, 159, 177

  Autolycus, 140–141, 178

  bachelors: households of, 238; male settlers as, 229, slum priests as, 3

  Bagon, Heather: as critic of Banks, 160–161

  Bailey, Peter: on music halls and popular culture, 313n136

  Balliol College, Oxford, 239, 254; and social conscience, 9

  Balliol House, at Toynbee Hall: founding of, 269; rebellion at, 270

  Baltimore Morning Herald, 141

  Ballantyne, R. M., 95–97

  Banks, Elizabeth L., 20, 140–150, 154– 180; as American girl, 140, 14, 170– 171, 174; American heiress masquerade of, 140; and American identity, 144, 146; and Autolycus, 140–141, 178; and comparisons of England and America, 142, 147, 155, 157, 170–175; and Black, 164–166, 169; crossing sweeper masquerade of, 140, 165; and disguise, 140, 142, 145, 155; and domesticity, 140–141, 143, 161, 163; on English class system, 155, 158–159, 162–163, 174; femininity of, 147, 150, 160, 166; flower girl masquerade of, 168–169; and Harkness, 166–169; involvement of in New York politics, 149; and James Greenwood, 141, 157, 158; and Kipling, 170; laundress masquerade of, 140, 150, 161, 165–166; on lynching, 176; maidservant masquerade of, 143, 155–156, 158–163; mulatto masquerade of, 175– 177; and New York journalism, 146– 150; in Peru, 145, 146; photographs of, 142–143, 144–145; photographs of, with her dog, 148; physical appearance of, 146–147, 173; and Pioneer Club, 159–160; and prostitution, 145–146; and racism, 175–177; on Republican Girls, 149–150; as single woman, 147; and sex, 141, 145–146, 158, 177–178; and slumming, motives for, 156, 159– 161, 170–171, 179, 284; social background of, 143–144; on women and journalism, 146; on women’s colleges, 173–174, 175–176; on women’s emancipation and suffrage, 142, 149, 150, 159, 162, 176

  Barnardo arbitration, 20, 90, 93, 101, 112–113; outcome of, 112, 129–130; on “artistic fictions,” 113

  Barnardo, Thomas John, 7, 12, 20, 88–138, 285; as “Amateur Tramp,” 88; and “artistic fictions,” 88, 91, 113, 115– 117, 133; BBC documentary on, 88; and boys’ home, 98–99, 108; charges against, 91, 109, 103; and Charrington, 91–92, 108; an
d Clerical Junius, 112; and COS, 60, 91–92, 94, 98–103, 129, 132; and disguise, 109–110; dream of, 110–111; ethics of, 284; and evangelical charity, 88, 90, 91, 94–100, 102, 129; and Fitzgerald, 106–108; and Mrs. Johnson, 103; philanthropic legacy of, 94; photographs of, 104–106, 324n52; and photography, 20, 93, 103, 113–124, 132– 133; and prostitution, 103, 114; as queer fellow, 104; and ragged children, 90, 118–122, 130, 132, 213; and Reed, 120–122, 133; on “representative” photographs, 117, 130; and Reynolds, 91, 103, 104, 108; and scientific charity, 92, 100; sexuality of, 93, 103–105; and slumming, 109; social background of, 88, 90; and Williams family, 122–125, 133; working–class criticisms and testimony against, 12, 92, 108–109

  Barnardo’s, 133–138, 283; Stolen Childhood Campaign, 134, 136–137, 331n131; Streets and Lanes Project, 133

  Barnett, Henrietta, 17, 193, 211, 233, 238, 244–245, 282; and COS, 59; on culture and philanthropy, 237, 241; and Hampstead Garden Suburb, 363n88; and Hinton, 300–301n62; on interior decoration of Toynbee Hall, 246; and parish work in St. Jude’s, 237; at Toynbee Hall, 249

  Barnett House, Oxford, 283

  Barnett, Rev. Samuel, 17, 211, 23, 244– 245, 274; and Arnold Toynbee, 242– 243; and Ashbee, 264–266; and Balliol House, 270; and COS, 59, 100, 241; criticism of, 241–242; on culture and philanthropy, 237, 241; on friendship and fellowship, 240, 269; and Octavia Hill, 242; on Jacob and Esau, 229; on missions, 241; on origins of settlement movement, 237–240; and Oxford, 241–242; on personal touch, 264; personality of, 251; practicable socialism of, 240–241; spiritual beliefs of, 248; and Wadham House, 269; on Whitman, 263