WHITECHAPEL METHODIST MISSION

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: ACC/1926
Held at	: London Metropolitan Archives   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma ›
Full title	: WHITECHAPEL METHODIST MISSION
Date(s)	: 1876-1978
Level of description	: Collection
Extent	: 9.22 linear metres
Name of creator(s)	: Methodist Church of Great Britain x United Methodist Church x Wesleyan Methodist Church x Primitive Methodist Church

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

The Whitechapel Methodist Mission was a Primitive Methodist foundation, arising from the home mission activities of one of the Methodists' greatest ministers, the Reverend Thomas Jackson, who worked in the East End of London for 56 years. His work at Whitechapel built on his earlier work in Bethnal Green, Walthamstow and Clapton.

The Whitechapel Mission combined social work with evangelical work. The station began in 1897 when Thomas Jackson bought the Working Lads' Institute which was due to close owing to a shortage of funds. He used this as the basis for his work in Whitechapel. In 1901 the Mission acquired a property on Marine Parade, Southend, to continue the provision of holidays and convalescent stays for the poor from the area. In 1906 Brunswick Hall was purchased, and this enabled a physical separation of the social and evangelical work. The Mission's many activities included free breakfasts and penny dinners for local children, a Medical Mission, free legal advice service, night shelter for homeless men, distribution of food, coal and grocery tickets to the poor and prison gate rescue work (especially amongst young men), which developed into full probation work with the opening of Windyridge Hostel.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Records of the Whitechapel Methodist Mission, 1876-1978, comprising records of the Whitechapel Station (Circuit), 1897-1975, including quarterly meetings and accounts (Section A); records of the central administration of the social work of the Mission, 1893-1978, including records of the Trustees, Executive Committee, financial records and staff records (Section B); records of the Working Lad's Institute, 1897-1975, including records from before its take over by the Reverend Jackson in 1897, and of its later developments, Whitechapel House Tulse Hill and Whitechapel House Maple Place, including photographs (Section C); records of Brunswick Hall and the Night Shelter, 1900-1970, including some accounts of life as a homeless person in 1926 (Section D); records of the holiday homes, Southend, 1901-1954 (Section E); records of Windyridge Hostel, 1925-1977 (Section F) and records of other stations brought by Revd Jackson to Whitechapel, 1876-1974 (Section G).

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

In sections A - G.

Conditions governing access:

Available for general access.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copyright: Depositor

Finding aids:

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Deposited in the London Metropolitan Archives in 1983.

Allied Materials

Related material:

A file on the Whitechapel Mission by the Research Department of the Family Welfare Association (reference: A/FWA/C/D161/1) is held by London Metropolitan Archives.

Publication note:

Potter, William, Thomas Jackson of Whitechapel: A Record of Fifty Years of Social and Evangelistic Enterprise, 1929. Held at the LMA, ref 50.9 JAC.

Description Notes

Archivist's note:

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
January to March 2009