Toynbee Hall
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![A person in a corridor with clipboards mounted on a timber frame on the left. Each displays a coloured information sheet with images and text. The exhibit title reads "How has Toynbee Hall made a difference?"]()
Exploring the legacy of a "powerhouse for social change" a project with activism at its heart.
Toynbee Hall, 2018. NLHF funded, Grade II Listed, Interpretation by Toynbee Hall, Architecture by Richard Griffiths Architects.
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![A quote stencilled on a wall reading: “I find much to justify hope that, if not in our time, in some time, the forces at work will make a happier and better East London. Samuel Barnett”]()
Toynbee Hall has been at the forefront of political and social reform since it was founded in 1884. It was set up as a place of education and inspiration for inner city working classes and as a place for future leaders to live and work as volunteers, bringing them face to face with poverty in an attempt to develop practical solutions for tackling society’s inequalities.
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![A timber panel with 5 rows of clipboards mounted to it. Each clipboard is a coloured exhibition panel with images and text. Two digital screens are embedded in the display.]()
Clipboards were used as exhibition panels to reference the history of campaigning. Each highlights key moments, events and people from the Hall’s history, and the displays were designed to be easily updatable in-house. Interactive touchscreen displays of archival material were integrated into these displays. We also tendered and commissioned the associated website that provided a digital history of the Hall.
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![A timber podium in a room with dark wood panelling. Dates and information about speeches are etched into the vertical slats of the podium.]()
We created a podium for the Hall, with the dates and details of key speeches made at Toynbee etched into its sides. It is still used for speeches, but designed as an approachable installation that can provoke visitors to imagine what their own contributions might be.
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![Booth’s map of London Poverty 1889 used as graphic wallpaper on an entire wall. There are four framed images on the wall, including an original print of the map and handwritten letters.]()
Charles Booth undertook his initial research for the London Poverty maps while based at Toynbee Hall, and the organisation retains original copies of this significant works. We used a map of the local area to create a graphic wallpaper, with an original print and background information displayed on top of it.
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![A red badge-making machine and pink and white pin badges on a wooden table.]()
The Hall is available for hire and often used by charities and organisations involved in social reform. We provided a badge making machine so delegates and visitors could create their own name badges to encourage active participation.
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![Entrance sign to Toynbee Hall, in dark coloured metal with white text at the top. On the right hand side is a small portion of the timber entrance door, on the left is a window. The sign is positioned within a flower bed.]()
Along with creating the wayfinding, and identity for the exhibition, we created an entrance sign to the building. Using patinated bronze and silkscreened text, the unit is updatable to display posters for conferences that are happening daily.
