Hampstead Meeting House

This article is about the meeting house in London. For the similarly named meetinghouse in New Hampshire, see Hampstead Meetinghouse.

The Hampstead Meeting House from Hampstead Square in December 2022

The Hampstead Meeting House is a Friends meeting house (a Quaker place of worship) at 120 Heath Street in Hampstead, London N3.[1] It was designed by Fred Rowntree in the Arts and Crafts style.[2] The friends had previously met in Willoughby Road from 1903.[3] The Hungarian emigrant sculptor Peter Laszlo Peri was an elder of the Hampstead meeting; having joined in 1945.[4]

Mahatma Gandhi spoke at the meeting house in 1909.[5] The prominent Australian Quaker David Hodgkin married Bridget Kelsey in the meeting house in 1940.[6] The noted boat designer Iain Oughcubson became a member of the meeting in the late 1960s.[7] The New Zealand social worker and poet Ursula Bethell called the building a "beautiful little bare meeting house" in a 1937 letter to Rodney Kennedy.[8] The peace activist Stephen Hobhouse attended the Hampstead meeting after graduation in the 1900s.[9] The Chinese feminist and author Zeng Baosun attended the meeting during the 1910s.[10] The Orthodox priest and writer Lev Gillet also attended in the 1940s despite his Orthodox faith.[11]

A Quaker funeral at the Hampstead Meeting House is depicted in Zoe Heller's 2001 novel Everything You Know.[12]

The meeting house is listed Grade II on the National Heritage List for England.[2]

The meeting for worship is held on Sundays at 11 am; with an additional meeting on the first Sunday of every month at 9:30 am.[13]

References

  1. ^ Christopher Hibbert; Ben Weinreb; John Keay; Julia Keay; Avant Dilbert (9 September 2011). The London Encyclopaedia (3rd ed.). Pan Macmillan. p. 291. ISBN 978-0-230-73878-2.
  2. ^ a b Historic England, "Friends Meeting House (1378849)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 20 June 2017
  3. ^ British History Online: Hampstead: Protestant nonconformity | British History Online, accessdate: June 20, 2017
  4. ^ Gary Sandman (24 July 2015). Quaker Artists. Lulu.com. p. 111. ISBN 978-1-329-30716-2.
  5. ^ T. K. Mahadevan (1988). Ideas and Variations: Essays, Satire, Criticism, 1973-76. Mittal Publications. p. 118. ISBN 978-81-7099-064-2.
  6. ^ Margery Post Abbott (2011). Historical Dictionary of the Friends (Quakers). Scarecrow Press. p. 169. ISBN 978-0-8108-6857-1.
  7. ^ Nic Compton (27 May 2009). Iain Oughtred: A Life in Wooden Boats. A&C Black. pp. 31–. ISBN 978-1-4081-0515-3.
  8. ^ Ursula Bethell (2005). Vibrant with Words: The Letters of Ursula Bethell. Victoria University Press. p. 146. ISBN 978-0-86473-504-1.
  9. ^ Hope Hay Hewison (1989). Hedge of Wild Almonds: South Africa, the Pro-Boers & the Quaker Conscience, 1890-1910. James Currey Publishers. ISBN 978-0-85255-031-1.
  10. ^ Baosun Zeng (2002). Confucian Feminist: Memoirs of Zeng Baosun (1893-1978). American Philosophical Society. p. 61. ISBN 978-0-87169-921-3.
  11. ^ William McLoughlin; Jill Pinnock (2007). Mary for Time and Eternity. Gracewing Publishing. p. 138. ISBN 978-0-85244-651-5.
  12. ^ Zoe Heller (30 January 2001). Everything You Know. Simon and Schuster. p. 129. ISBN 978-0-7434-1195-0.
  13. ^ "North West London Quakers". North West London Quakers. Retrieved 20 June 2017.

51°33′34.67″N 0°10′42.04″W / 51.5596306°N 0.1783444°W / 51.5596306; -0.1783444