Culture, Philanthropy and the Poor in Late-Victorian London

Geoffrey A. C. Ginn teaches modern British history and heritage studies at the School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, University of Queensland, Australia. His research focuses on urban history, historical museology and public history, with particular interests in the Victorians, colonial cities, the history of religion, and public culture.

• List of figuresAcknowledgmentsAbbreviations 1 A good young man in a shiny top hat 2 Sources and explanations 3 Social work, sweetness and light 4 One by one in Whitechapel 5 An impossible story in Mile End 6 Social duty in South London 7 Places, spaces, audiences 8 Uniting sentiment, common feeling 9 The gift of culture, properly understood Additional bibliography Index

CHOICE ReviewModern historians have dismissed many prominent, late-Victorian, social reform movements as frivolous, pompous, or wrongheaded, according to Ginn (Univ. of Queensland, Australia), who argues that negative judgments on sharing fine art, music, poetry, literature, outings, and other aesthetic riches with the urban poor have been mired in a general misunderstanding of the benefactors’ principles. The efforts of those such as Octavia Hill and the Kyrle Society; Samuel and Henrietta Barnett of St. Jude’s Church, Whitechapel, later founders of Toynbee Hall; and Walter Besant and Sir Edmund Currie of the Beaumont Trust, which built the People’s Palace at Mile End, were attempts to provide color and pleasure to the dingy, monotonous lives of the inner-city poor, establishing connections and friendships between the haves and the have-nots while recognizing that the poor were not automatically hungry nor were they heathens. Morality and Christian values were to be fostered by “diffusive Christianity” that provided positive intellectual and cultural stimulation through close association rather than pontification, with evening classes, reading rooms, and entertainments allowing variety and cooperation to ameliorate drab utilitarian environments while strengthening a sense of community among social classes. --E. J. Jenkins, Arkansas Tech University, USASumming Up: Essential. All levels/libraries.