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Cleveland Hall was a meeting hall in
Cleveland Street, London Cleveland Street in central London runs north to south from Euston Road ( A501) to the junction of Mortimer Street and Goodge Street. It lies within Fitzrovia, in the W1 post code area. Cleveland Street also runs along part of the border bet ...
that was a centre of the British
secularist Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on secular, naturalistic considerations. Secularism is most commonly defined as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state, and may be broadened to a si ...
movement between 1861 and 1878, and that was then used for various purposes before becoming a Methodist meeting hall.


Building and location

Cleveland Hall was built with a legacy from William Devonshire Saull, an Owenite, and in 1861 replaced the John Street Institution as the London centre of
freethought Freethought (sometimes spelled free thought) is an epistemological viewpoint which holds that beliefs should not be formed on the basis of authority, tradition, revelation, or dogma, and that beliefs should instead be reached by other meth ...
. The hall was controlled by its shareholders, and these changed over time, so it was not always used for freethought purposes. The hall was at 54 Cleveland Street,
Marylebone Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary. An ancient parish and latterly a metropolitan borough, it m ...
, north of
Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develo ...
in an area with a large immigrant population. According to the ''Secular Review and Secularist'' in 1877 the hall was a large and commodious building with a historic repute in connection with secular propaganda. It was near
Fitzroy Square Fitzroy Square is a Georgian square in London. It is the only one in the central London area known as Fitzrovia. The square is one of the area's main features, this once led to the surrounding district to be known as Fitzroy Square or Fitzr ...
, three minutes walk from the buses of
Tottenham Court Road Tottenham Court Road (occasionally abbreviated as TCR) is a major road in Central London, almost entirely within the London Borough of Camden. The road runs from Euston Road in the north to St Giles Circus in the south; Tottenham Court Road ...
or from Portland Road Station. Another source described the location less kindly as in "Cleveland Street, a street lying in that mass of pauperism at the rear of Tottenham Court Road Chapel".


Secularism centre

In the 1860s several lecturers including
George Holyoake George Jacob Holyoake (13 April 1817 – 22 January 1906) was an English secularist, co-operator and newspaper editor. He coined the terms secularism in 1851 and " jingoism" in 1878. He edited a secularist paper, the ''Reasoner'', from 1846 to ...
and
Harriet Law Harriet Teresa Law (née Frost, 5 November 1831 – 19 July 1897) was a leading British freethinker in 19th-century London. The daughter of a small farmer, she was raised as a "Strict Baptist" but later converted to atheism. She became a salarie ...
who rejected the leadership of
Charles Bradlaugh Charles Bradlaugh (; 26 September 1833 – 30 January 1891) was an English political activist and atheist. He founded the National Secular Society in 1866, 15 years after George Holyoake had coined the term "secularism" in 1851. In 1880, Br ...
tried to make the hall a rival to his Hall of Science. George William Foote in his ''Reminiscences of Charles Bradlaugh'' recalls coming to London in January 1868 with "plenty of health and very little religion". He was taken to Cleveland Hall by a friend, and "heard Mrs Law knock the Bible about delightfully. She was not what would be called a woman of culture, but she had what some devotees of 'culchaw' do not possess - a great deal of natural ability..." A few weeks later Foote heard Bradlaugh speaking at the hall. Foote later became increasingly involved in the secular movement. An 1870 book on ''The Religious Life of London'' described Cleveland Hall as the headquarters of the Secularists. The doors would open at seven and the lectures would start at 7.30. There was a fee to enter, and an additional fee for seats near the front. The room was generally "half full of respectable and sharp working men, all very positive and enthusiastic." Some sample lectures were Charles Watts on ''An Impartial Estimate of the Life and Teachings of the Founder of Christianity''; Bradlaugh on ''Capital and Labour, and Trades' Unions''; Harriet Law on ''The Teachings and Philosophy of J.S. Mill, Esq.'', ''The Late Robert Owen: a Tribute to His Memory'' and an ''Appeal to Women to Consider their Interests in Connection with the Social, Political and Theological Aspects of the Times.'' Each lecture would be followed by an open discussion. In 1869 ''The Gospel Magazine'' reported that "with feelings of revulsion, we witnessed at Cleveland Hall the reception of an infant into the Atheistic body. Its mistaken mother publicly placed the child in the arms of the notorious lecturer, Mr Bradlaugh, who bestowed upon it his Atheistic blessing..." The writer concluded that these events "clearly portend the near approach of the period when the terrible conflict which is pointed to in so many prophetic portions of the Scriptures will take place." The secularists let others make use of the hall. For a year from November 1865 the hall was leased for Sunday evenings so that the American
Unitarian Unitarian or Unitarianism may refer to: Christian and Christian-derived theologies A Unitarian is a follower of, or a member of an organisation that follows, any of several theologies referred to as Unitarianism: * Unitarianism (1565–present ...
abolitionist Moncure Daniel Conway could "address the working classes." However, the audience consisted of well-dressed lower-middle-class people. In April 1868 there was a meeting of operative house-painters to discuss co-operation with the Manchester Alliance of Painters on a federative principle. In September 1868 the Artisans' Club and Trades' Hall Company held a meeting seeking funding for a hall for the use of trade, benefit and other societies.


Mixed uses

In 1869 the ownership of the hall changed. In 1870 the ''
Evangelical Magazine and Missionary Chronicle The ''Evangelical Magazine'' was a monthly magazine published in London from 1793 to 1904, and aimed at Calvinist Christians. It was supported by evangelical members of the Church of England, and by nonconformists with similar beliefs. Its editori ...
'' noted that the Reverend Charles Adolphus Row was delivering a course of lectures in defence of the gospel at Cleveland Hall, Fitzroy Square, the former secularist centre. On 25 June 1871 the
spiritualist Spiritualism is the metaphysical school of thought opposing physicalism and also is the category of all spiritual beliefs/views (in monism and dualism) from ancient to modern. In the long nineteenth century, Spiritualism (when not lowercase) ...
Mrs
Emma Hardinge Britten Emma Hardinge Britten (2 May 1823 – 2 October 1899) was an English advocate for the early Modern Spiritualist Movement. Much of her life and work was recorded and published in her speeches and writing and an incomplete autobiography edite ...
delivered a lecture at Cleveland Hall while under inspiration of a spirit, in which she described the third and higher spheres. On 16 April 1874 the British National Association of Spiritualists held a grand inaugural soirée in Cleveland Hall. On 10 May 1874 Cora L.V. Tappan delivered an inspirational discourse at the Hall. The next week Judge John W. Edmonds delivered an address to a large audience there through Mrs Tappan as medium; the judge had died less than two months earlier.
Charles Maurice Davies Charles Maurice Davies (1828–1910) was an Anglican clergyman, writer and spiritualist. Early life Charles Maurice Davies was born in 1828 in Wells, Somerset. He entered University College, Durham in 1845, graduating with a second-class BA i ...
wrote that year, On 18 August 1874 Jonathan Charles King of 54 Cleveland Street and 30 Howland Street, proprietor of the Cleveland Hall Assembly Rooms, initiated proceedings for liquidation under the Bankruptcy Act.In 1876 Harriet Law again leased the hall for use in freethought lectures.In July 1877 it was reported that Harriet Law had leased Cleveland Hall for another twelve months, and a meeting would be held at which George Holyoake, Harriet Law, George William Foote and others would speak. The secularists did not renew the lease in 1878. The hall was then used for some years for dances and other purposes. In the 1870s and 1880s various groups of political refugees came to London, including French
communards The Communards () were members and supporters of the short-lived 1871 Paris Commune formed in the wake of the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. After the suppression of the Commune by the French Army in May 1871, 43,000 Communards ...
, German socialists, Russian Jews and Italian anarchists such as Tito Zanardelli. Most of the Italian refugees settled in Soho and Clerkenwell. Giovanni Defendi, who had fought with
Garibaldi Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi ( , ;In his native Ligurian language, he is known as ''Gioxeppe Gaibado''. In his particular Niçard dialect of Ligurian, he was known as ''Jousé'' or ''Josep''. 4 July 1807 – 2 June 1882) was an Italian general, patr ...
, lived at 17 Cleveland Street. On 18 July 1881 an anarchist congress was held at the Cleveland Hall, Fitzroy Square, at which the American Marie Le Compte,
Louise Michel Louise Michel (; 29 May 1830 – 9 January 1905) was a teacher and important figure in the Paris Commune. Following her penal transportation to New Caledonia she embraced anarchism. When returning to France she emerged as an important French a ...
, and Prince
Peter Kropotkin Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (; russian: link=no, Пётр Алексе́евич Кропо́ткин ; 9 December 1842 – 8 February 1921) was a Russian anarchist, socialist, revolutionary, historian, scientist, philosopher, and activ ...
spoke. The congress openly supported "propaganda by deed", and discussed using "chemical materials" to further the revolution. The meeting resulted in a question being asked in the House of Commons. The '' Commonweal'' of 5 February 1887 announced that "A meeting of the international revolutionists to protest against the coming war will be held in Cleveland Hall, Cleveland Street... The chair will be taken by comrade illiamMorris. Speeches will be made in various languages ..." Morris described the place at the time of the meeting as "a wretched place, once flash and now sordid, in a miserable street. It is the headquarters of the orthodox Anarchists, most of the foreign speakers belonging to this persuasion; but a Collectivist also spoke, and one, at least, from the Autonomy section who have some quarrel which I can't understand with the Cleveland Hall people."


Methodist mission

The hall came to be owned by the West London Methodist Mission of
Hugh Price Hughes Hugh Price Hughes (8 February 1847 – 17 November 1902) was a Welsh Protestant clergyman and religious reformer in the Methodist tradition. He served in multiple leadership roles in the Wesleyan Methodist Church. He organised the West London Me ...
. The foundation, which was active from 1889 to 1916, was dedicated to helping poor young women. The mission spent £1,500 to convert it into a mission hall. There was seating accommodation for six hundred people upstairs, and downstairs had rooms for the same number of people and a kitchen. The hall was fronted by a three-story building that now held a coffee-palace, classrooms and a place of residence. The Hall was reopened in May 1890. Meetings were held every night. An American visitor who attended the opening of the hall said the meeting was protracted and many souls were converted. In 1890 the hall was said to be self-supporting. In practice, however, it relied on generous donations. A dedication service for the Cleveland Hall Food Depot was held in February 1891. The depot received and distributed gifts of food for the hungry. The mission held coffee concerts, lantern talks and a social hour for young men and women after the Sunday evening service, as well as many other activities. Clara Sophia aryNeal ran a club for working girls at Cleveland Hall two or three evenings a week. She said, The Girls' Club was a great success, but in the autumn of 1895 Mary and Emmeline Pethick left the mission to set up their own
Espérance Club The Espérance Club, and the Maison Espérance dressmaking cooperative, were founded in the mid-1890s by Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence and Mary Neal in response to distressing conditions for girls in the London dress trade. The club was based at 5 ...
for girls. They wanted to escape from the mission's institutional constraints and to experiment with dance and drama. The last records of the West London Mission from Cleveland Hall date to 1916.


See also

*
Conway Hall The Conway Hall Ethical Society, formerly the South Place Ethical Society, based in London at Conway Hall, is thought to be the oldest surviving freethought organisation in the world and is the only remaining ethical society in the United Kin ...
* Methodist Central Hall Westminster


References

Citations Sources * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cleveland Hall Former buildings and structures in the City of Westminster