Kingsley Hall

Kingsley Hall is a community centre, in Powis Road, Bromley-by-Bow in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It dates back to the work of Doris and Muriel Lester, who had a nursery school in nearby Bruce Road. Their brother, Kingsley Lester, died aged 26 in 1914, leaving money for work in the local area for "educational, social and recreational" purposes, with which the Lesters bought and converted a disused chapel. The current Hall was built with a stone-laying ceremony taking place on 14 July 1927. A second community centre, also known as Kingsley Hall with a church (KHCCC - Kingsley Hall Church and Community Centre), was later built by the sisters in the neighbouring London Borough of Barking and Dagenham on Parsloes Avenue in Dagenham. KHCCC underwent redevelopment in 2018. During the General Strike of 1926, Kingsley Hall in Bow became a shelter and soup kitchen for workers. Mohandas Gandhi stayed in Kingsley Hall in 1931 and the building now houses the Gandhi Foundation. The room where he stayed has been preserved. In 1935, hunger marchers on the Jarrow March stayed at the Hall. In 1965 R. D. Laing and his associates asked the Lesters for permission to use the Hall as an alternative community, influenced by the World War II Northfield experiments, for treating people affected by mental health crisis. Kingsley Hall became home to one of the most radical experiments in psychology of the time. The aim of the experiment by the Philadelphia Association was to create a model for non-restraining, non-drug therapies for those people seriously affected by schizophrenia. The idea of starting this type of community was an initiative suggested by Mary Barnes an artist and former nurse and, first resident as patient. The hall was designated a Grade II listed building in September 1973.