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All about Battersea

Note 3 — HENRY S. SIMMONDS. (continued 5)

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The scheme thus proposed has been abandoned. The temporary Hall has been taken down and seven houses with shops erected on the site, also a Temperance Hall. The Shaftesbury Club and Institute, Eversleigh House, Lavender Hill, was opened on Saturday, Feb. 2nd, 1878, at 3 o'clock p.m. Previously a movement had been in progress to establish a Club and Institute for the benefit of those large classes of working men who live upon the Shaftesbury Park Estate, and in the crowded neighbourhoods in the immediate vicinity. Nothing of the kind was in existence, and, as a consequence, there was no efficient corrective to the growing evils of intemperance and wasted time among these classes of the people. The movement met with a great and increasing support from the working men themselves, and the Provisional Committee appointed has been busily engaged in the work of organising the Club. The objects of the Club and Institute are thus stated in the Draft Rules:—

"To afford to its members the means of social intercourse, mutual helpfulness, mental and moral improvement, industrial welfare, and rational recreation. The Club shall not identify itself with any political, social, or theological party. As funds permit, there shall be provided:—Library and Reading Rooms, supplied with Books, Periodicals, and Newspapers; Educational Classes; Conversation, Refreshment, and Smoking Rooms, in which various games may be played; Billiard and Bagatelle Rooms; Popular Lectures and Entertainments; Rooms for the Meetings of Benefit and Friendly Societies." Subscription 1s. a month 2s. 6d. a quarter, 10s. a year. Arthur George Thorne, Hon. Secretary. Mr. W. Swindlehurst was the Secretary to the Estate Company. The purchase of the Freehold Land (it is said) cost the Estate Company £28,000. Recently the house rents on the Estate have been raised.

The entrance to Shaftesbury Hall is in Ashbury Road.

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