The title may seem like an oxymoron – the People’s Palace ceased to operate in 1954 and its archives have been fully catalogued on our online catalogue since 2012 - but an archive is not set in stone, and in the last ten years additional material has trickled in (eleven additional boxes worth to be exact). We have recently finished repackaging, describing and updating the catalogue with these additions and this blog will cover some of our favourite discoveries.
New Beaumont Institution medal [Ref. QM/1/18/2]
This sketch of the Lecture Theatre in the Beaumont Institution is one of the oldest items we have added; it dates to the 1840s. Here lectures “for mental and moral improvement and amusement” of the local people of Stepney Green took place from 1840-1879 (Indenture, 7 July 1840). The outside of the building demolished in 1937 can be seen on the medal. The Institute was founded by JT Barber Beaumont in 1840 who died in 1841, the pictured medal is an obituary medal.
The trust and endowments left to the by then shut Institute by Beaumont were instead mobilised to fund a charitable scheme that would become the People’s Palace. The stipulations made by Beaumont, to educate and entertain the local people, shaped the aims of the People’s Palace. More about this ancestor of Queen Mary University of London and founding funder can be found in Series 18: J.T. Barber Beaumont, Beaumont Trust, and Beaumont family.
The binding itself of The Young Woman is a thing of beauty. The contents of this journal do not disappoint either giving insight into gender in late Victorian England 1892-3 with articles from “How to Dress on Twelve Pounds a Year” to “Laws which affect women.” The article "What they read in the East End? An interview with the lady librarian at the Peoples Palace" is the reason for its place in the archive.
Interviewed is Minnie Stewart Rhodes James who worked at the People’s Palace 1888-1894, first as an Assistant and then as Head Librarian. Several other articles by and about James are also under this reference as she passionately advocated for more women to work in Libraries at a time when most careers outside the home were dominated by men. We have added James’ papers to a new series gathering together small groups of papers relating specifically to a member of People’s Palace staff which gives new insight into the characters at the heart of the institution [QM/1/8/6].
This negative gives a new angle of the People’s Palace frontage on Mile End Road which we are now familiar with today as the Queen Mary University of London Queen’s Building and clock tower. We have included an edited version to show how a photographic print would appear.
Dating to 1899 it is worth taking a closer look at just how the road has changed. We love seeing cobbles and horse drawn carriages moving goods on Mile End Road. The view is dominated by St Benet’s Church which was bombed in World War 2 and rebuilt as campus’s St Benet’s Chapel after the war.
This volume of exam results for East London Technical School Day Students is fascinating because it brings you closer to the individual lives of the students of this era. You can read specific classes taken, scholarships and prizes won, exams taken, failures and successes. Particularly interesting is the Art (as opposed to Arts) classes listed which would have been studied in the South Front Art School, located in the street facing first and second floors of what is now the Queens Building.
For example the pictured Antique Room is now the Senior Common Room bar. It was a short-lived part of the educational offering of the People’s Palace but the class titles give a sense of the schools work. Some of the best class titles we found are: “Drawing with Chalk upon the Blackboard”, “Freehand Drawing of Ornament”, “Drawing from Life” and “Drawing the Antique from Memory”.
It must be noted that we have added a large number of minute books of the various managing bodies of the People’s Palace, East London Technical College and East London College. Not the most glamorous part of the archives but as you can see from the samples from the index also added, it is the necessary starting point for a wide range of subjects.
Although this index is handwritten the vast majority of the minutes are in print which helps. They answer a whole range of questions about the People’s Palace and Queen Mary’s early history, and we are pleased to have added so many to our catalogues to help future researchers.
This programme is an example of the items relating to the later period of the People’s Palace which is now better represented on our catalogue. The People’s Palace in its new 1930s building continued as a concert venue and dance hall until 1953 and hosted many significant performers and performance companies.
This particular programme is for the Markova Dolin Ballet with Alicia Markova (later Dame) and Anton Dolin (later Sir). The company of Dolin-Markova is a famous partnership, and this programme is a performance from their final season. Markova was thought to be responsible for bringing Classical ballet to the UK and was one of only two English dancers recognised as a Prima Ballerina.
Additional material has found its way to Queen Mary University Archives through kind donations and internal transfers within Queen Mary University of London. We have also reconsidered the boundaries of this collection which has given us the opportunity to add exciting items to do with the earliest days of higher education at our Mile End campus. The collection now covers education at the People's Palace up to 1913 when East London College formally split from the palace. Please do explore our online catalogue to find the full extent of the additions.