Muriel and Doris Lester &
The Heritage of the Kingsley Hall Community Centres
The website of the Kingsley Hall Community Centres Heritage Committee (KHCCHC)
Email : info@muriellester.org Copyright LAPOLLO Systems on behalf of KHCCHC
Every attempt has been made to ensure no materials are used without permission of copyright
owners. If you believe we have breached this please contact us to agree appropriate actions.
To add to its 80th anniversary celebrations, Kingsley Hall in Bromley by Bow was awarded a grant of £49,900 from the Heritage Lottery Fund for a year-long project, Kingsley Hall and the Legacy of Muriel Lester. This helped preserve the Muriel Lester Archive, making it accessible to everybody, and so gain wider recognition for the achievements of the two Kingsley Halls’ founders, Muriel and her sister Doris.
Activities within the project included:
- conservation workshops at Kingsley Hall in Dagenham, working on the Muriel Lester archives, with training and supervision by a conservator. The archive includes correspondence, diaries, notebooks, publications and photographs, and the papers of Doris Lester.
- Working with local schools, the Tower Hamlets Humanities Education Centre produced a learning pack,
- Stitches In Time created a tapestry banner on the theme Symbols of Peace.
- Scanning much of the Lester Archives so they can be made available globally via the internet.
- Arranging for Muriel Lester’s personal papers to be professionally stored and protected. They are now at the Bishopsgate Institute and the index to what is stored can be accessed here
As part of its buildings development, Kingsley Hall in Dagenham had a heritage project in 2018
Information about the project and its results can be found from here