As for their plan of work, perhaps the aims and methods of a
'settlement' are not too well known for repetition. They are not all the
same, but the differences are slight. The directors of this settlement,
for instance, desire to plant a settlement house in every poor street; a
house which shall be inhabited by the workers, men or women, and shall
serve as a model for the other people in the street; example, in fact,
is relied upon as a potent influence. There is, or will be, a large club
house and coffee tavern for men and women, boys and girls. Once a week
there is a concert in the hall. The members of the settlement take as
large a part as possible in the local government; they have laid out a
burial-ground at the back of their hall as a garden; they have a medical
mission which gives consultations free; some of them are poor men's
lawyers; they have introduced the University Extension Lectures; they
have founded thrift agencies; they hold Sunday afternoons for the men;
they have a maternity society; they have a clothes store; they have an
adult school. Classes are held in hygiene, mathematics, and classics;
there have been Shakespeare readings, music, singing, country holidays,
summer camps, children's holidays; there is a boys' brigade; there is
musical drill; there are May Day and Harvest Festivals; and there are,
in addition, works of religion and temperance which I have not
enumerated above.
The keynote of all such work as this is, for the workers, personal
service; for the people, the influence of example, the attraction of
things which they understand at once to be a great deal more pleasant
than the bar and the tap-room; such a variety of work and recreation as
may drag all into the net except the substratum of all, whom nothing can
lift out of the mire.
One or two things have yet to be learned as regards these settlements.
First, how large an area in a densely populated part can be covered by a
single settlement? Next, how many young men can be found to carry on the
work? For instance, if the Browning Settlement can reach--of course it
cannot--all the people of Walworth, which is in the Parish of Newington,
and includes 120,000 people, there ought to be nine other settlements in
South London from Battersea to Greenwich, both included. If we give
20,000 people for each settlement, then there ought to be at least fifty
settlements for the millions of the working class. The Report does not
state how many residents there are, but gives a list of the officers and
managers of departments, from which it would seem that about thirty are
actively engaged from day to day. So that fifteen hundred voluntary
workers in all would be required in order to cover this land of slums
with an effective string of settlements.
[Illustration: A Former Entrance to St. Thomas's Hospital]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account