Educating and Entertaining East London
It is difficult to imagine Mile End Road as anything other than a built up, busy road which forms part of the urban sprawl of East London. However, if you were to take stroll through Whitechapel, east towards Mile End Road during the late 1700s, you would’ve breathed country air and seen open fields, interspersed with farms and rural hamlets. Your walk would eventually take you past Bancroft Hospital and almshouses, established in 1737 by the Drapers’ Company, using the money bequeathed to them by Francis Bancroft following his death in 1727.
The Bancroft Almshouses, shown on Horwood’s 1790s map of London
When the industrialisation of East London reached its peak in the latter half of the 19th century, it was decided that the hospital and almshouses would be demolished, and Bancroft School which had also been established on the site, would be relocated. In 1885, the site was sold to the Beaumont Trustees, who had been searching for an appropriate location for their educational establishment. The Beaumont Trust, described as ‘Unitarian philanthropists’, sought to replace the Philosophical Institution which was founded by J.T. Barber Beaumont (1774-1841) in Beaumont Square.
Once financial backing for the Palace had been secured, the Trustees made a public appeal for funds, with E.R. Robson (1836-1917) appointed to design the new institution. Although money was quickly raised, it was the Drapers who funded the completion of the building once donations dwindled.
On the 28th of June 1886 the Prince of Wales laid the foundation stone of the Queen’s Hall. A year later the building was opened by Queen Victoria, who on the same day also laid the foundation stone of the Technical Schools. By 1892, the People’s Palace was complete, and included a library, swimming bath, Technical Schools, gymnasium, and Winter Garden. In 1896 the site became known as East London Technical College, and divided into three departments, a day school for boys, and day classes for male and female students. In 1905 the name changed once again to the East London College, with a growing distinction between the educational and technical elements of the College.
Queen Victoria opening The People’s Palace, 1887
Following WWI, the College sought to expand due to the growing number of students being admitted. It soon became clear that the duality of the building was no longer functioning harmoniously. Given the limited scope for expansion, a Special Committee was appointed to facilitate the development of the College, and to resolve the divergence between the People’s Palace and East London College.
The question of expansion, however, was unexpectedly resolved on the night of the 24th of February 1931 when a fire started in Queen’s Hall following a boxing match. Despite the destruction of the Hall, the College and Winter Garden sustained minimal damage. The primary concern of the Principal and Governors following the fire was to secure agreement to take over the whole of the Queen’s Building site for the College and rebuild the People’s Palace on a new site at St Helen’s Terrace. This goal was achieved despite a local campaign to ‘save the People’s Palace’. It was at this point the College was renamed Queen Mary College when the Charter of Incorporation was granted.
In 1882 Walter Besant wrote of the largely overlooked residents of East London, who appeared to have a disconnect from the wider city of London, and it’s history. In Besant’s own words, ‘two millions of people, or thereabouts, live in the East End of London. That seems a good-sized population for an utterly unknown town. They have no institutions of their own to speak of, no public buildings of any importance, no municipality, no gentry, no carriages, no soldiers, no picture-galleries, no theatres, no opera — they have nothing.’[1]
The success of the People’s Palace, both as a place of entertainment and education, shows that despite their poverty, the people of East London aspired to improve their lives. Be it through a temporary distraction from the gruelling life in the slums, to obtaining an education which may have given them the ability to leave it altogether, the People’s Palace provided an escapism that must’ve been sorely needed.
The People’s Palace, 1900
[1] Besant, Walter and James Rice, All Sorts and Conditions of Men (Lovell, Coryell & Company, New York, 1882), p.32. Accessed online via https://www.gutenberg.org/files/47098/47098-h/47098-h.htm