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| Archive Reference / Library Class No. | D8760/F/OBJ/7 |
| Former Reference | D3311/OBJ |
| Title | Seal of the Universities Settlement in East London, designed by Philip Lyttelton Gell, with card of notes explaining the design to celebrate the opening of Toynbee Hall |
| Date | 1884 |
| Description | Toynbee Hall in Spitalfields was set up in 1884 by leading figures of Oxford University as a "settlement " to provide social facilities and activities and act as a centre for social reform in a poor urban area. The seal incorporates the emblems of the two universities of Oxford and Cambridge, students of which lodged at Toynbee Hall to undertake social work. Philip Lyttelton Gell was the first Chairman of Trustees. |
| Extent | 2 items |
| Level | Item |
| Repository | Derbyshire Record Office |
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| Archive Creator | Gell family of Hopton Hall, Wirksworth |
| Transcript or Index | Langley Lodge (near Oxford)
My ideas in designing this seal at the foundation of Toynbee Hall were somewhat of this kind:-
The open volume with the insignia of Oxford on one page + Cambridge on the other represents the inherited education, knowledge + intellectual equipment of the Upper Classes. The scroll upon w[hic]h it rests ("In knowledge of whom standeth our Eternal Life") indicates that this knowledge is the Knowledge of God as revealed in the Laws of Nature + in His dealings with mankind w[hic]h is essential to all live. The Dawn of a new Epoch was in the East behind the open volume + the Oxford motto "God my light" re-echoes the idea embodied in the open volume below. P Lyttelton Gell |