It all began early in 1888 when a Miss Anson (after whom a room is named in St. Margarets House) distributed a leaflet in Oxford asking for support for a ladies' mission.
Initially called the Bethnal Green Ladies Committee with HRH Princess Marie Adelaide, Duchess of Teck, as president, St. Margarets was a substantial house with 15 rooms in a square built around the Museum Green. It was formally opened in October 1889.

Pioneering work included the Children's Country Holiday Fund, the Metropolitan Association for Befriending Young Servants, district and hospital visits, a needlework scheme to employ very poor women through the winter months, work helping the clergy from nearby parishes with Sunday School teaching and visiting work houses, as well as nursing the sick, organising sick and relief funds, work for mothers and children and running the clubs for girls.

Eleven years later in December 1900, it was decided to buy number 21 Old Ford Road which belonged to the Females Guardians Association. Arrangements were made to find the necessary £3,600 to buy this Georgian town house of character and charm.

On the morning of February 3rd 1903, the move was made and the new house was officially opened by Princess Henry of Battenburg on the 5th May.

Between the Wars

In 1921 St. Margarets House, in financial difficulties, was charging £2 a term for the training of students. It had fourteen residents including the Head and Bursar, six lodgers engaged on teaching or social work, two medical students and one Charity Organisation Society worker. And the start of a club for young married women stressing education for citizenship rather than recreation proved to be very popular.

In 1924 St. Margarets started a children's play hours scheme twice a week in the large hall which accommodated over 50 children who would otherwise be roaming the streets of Bethnal Green. In the same year the house took a leading part in launching the local branch of the Industrial Christian Fellowship.

In 1929 the House was very fortunate in securing the services of Eleanor Kelly, a founder member of the Association of Welfare Workers.

During the 1930s St. Margarets work underwent many changes but the decade began auspiciously with a visit by Queen Mary in 1931. In 1934, during the worst period of unemployment in the East End, the Unemployed Men's Centre was opened. Around this same time St. Margarets House was also sending out food parcels to old-age pensioners and the very poor.

In 1938 new initiative schemes such as Hospital Savings Association and Penny Bank were set up. In the same year gas-proof room was constructed because of the threat of war.

Through World War II to the Welfare State

The Bethnal Green branch of the newly formed CAB opened 1st September, the day war was declared. The CAB concept had come about during 1938 with a national plan to establish local centres of advice and information if war was declared.

During the war period in the 40s, five out of ten houses in Bethnal Green were destroyed through bombing, however St. Margarets House was fortunate in escaping serious damage despite much broken glass and several near misses including an incendiary bomb which fell on the chapel roof and failed to ignite.

In 1953 the Council decided that men could be resident at St. Margarets House as well as women. This decision was made because there was a decline in the numbers of female students wishing to take up residence at the House. In 1959 extensive repair and improvements were made to the main house: a new roof and rewiring throughout. In 1961 a new initiative, an introductory course for voluntary workers was commenced.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s St. Margarets House went through a series of financial ups and downs due to a desire to help the local community and limited finances from which to do so. A visit by the poet laureate, Sir John Betjeman, in 1975, assisted St. Margarets House in raising enough money to help it through the financial crisis.

In 1989 Murray Bracey, the then Director retired due to ill health and was succeeded by the current Director Tony Hardie who continued the change at St. Margarets House from residential to office use and introduced a number of house initiatives including a cafe, a youth club for the Maze Drug Education Project and children's creative dance classes.

The 1990s

In June 1993 the settlement again expanded as leaseholder of two adjoining buildings, numbers 15 and 17 Old Ford Road. Fortunately by 1999 we were able to purchase both properties with funding from both public and private sources.

We are currently carrying on our good work supporting community groups.