Eminently Quakerly by Joanna Clark

Eminently Quakerly Reviews

• 
  Bill Lawrence

  I didn't expect to find this on Goodreads as it is little more than a pamphlet. However, it has an ISBN number and so it is, but bereft of reviews or ratings. Recently, I've found myself at meetings at Friends House in Euston Road, London and now use it for coffee and sandwich if I'm in the area. I've had an affection for the Quakers or Friends since I taught at a school in York for a short time, but no affiliation. It turns out the architect of the Friends House went to the same school, but long before I was teaching there. This very short history of the development of the Friends House from gardens of the Duke of Devonshire, bought for £42,000 and then from a design by winning architect, Hubert Lidbetter (a Quaker) was built in 1926. The loss of the gardens became the trigger for a campaign that then resulted in the legislation that protected the parks and gardens of London from being consumed by developers and built over. It this side history that made the slim volume a surprise of little bits of information that I enjoyed, and the archive pictures, too. Copies are available from the Friends House bookshop (£4) and worth popping in to get a copy and a coffee.