Henrietta Barnett
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Dame Henrietta Barnett, DBE (1851 – 1936) was a notable English social reformer and author. She and her husband, Samuel Augustus Barnett, founded the first 'University Settlement' at Toynbee Hall (in east London) in 1884.
Born Henrietta Octavia Rowland, she worked with Octavia Hill who was instrumental in introducing her to the curate of St Mary’s, Bryanston Square, London. She subsequently married Samuel Barnett in 1873 and later that year the Barnetts moved to the impoverished Whitechapel parish of St Jude’s intent on improving social conditions.
A strong believer in the power of education to effect social change, she helped establish the Children's Country Holiday Fund (1884) and annual loan exhibitions of fine art at the Whitechapel gallery. The current Whitechapel Art Gallery was built in 1897 at the behest of the Barnetts, in the Arts and Crafts style.
She was also strongly associated with the Hampstead area of north-west London, conceiving the idea of the model housing development of Hampstead Garden Suburb in 1904 (working with architects Raymond Unwin and Sir Edwin Lutyens) and helping protect part of Hampstead Heath from development by Eton College. Ironically, given that this was intended to provide affordable housing, this area contains some of the most expensive real-estate per unit area in London.
Henrietta Barnett also founded the Henrietta Barnett School in Hampstead Garden Suburb in 1911.
She was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1924 for her services and contributions. She lived at Heath End House in Spaniards Road, Hampstead (today marked by a blue plaque) until her death, twelve years later, in 1936.
