Blackfriars Settlement

The first Blackfriars Settlement was at 44 Nelson Square.

In the 1970s Blackfriars Settlement was instrumental in enabling local residents to assert themselves as a community, fight the spread of office development and campaign to rebuild their community.

The Settlement was one of the hubs of social, political and community action in the Blackfriars area. The formation of ‘settlements’ in poor neighbourhoods of Britain in the late 19th and early 20th centuries spearheaded the birth of the welfare state after the Second World War.

In addition to re-fashioning its approach to youth work, the Settlement spawned three new projects – BIAS (a rights advocacy project), the Community Photography Project, and the Community Action Team.