religious, library, mixed use
Hubert Lidbetter, 1926
173-177 Euston Road, NW1 2BJ
The Grade II listed home of Quakers in Britain, Friends House won an RIBA bronze medal in 1927. The building houses the central offices of Quakers in Britain as well as their library and archive, event spaces, a café, bookshop, worship space, courtyard, and garden. Friends House serves as a hub for an array of events, meetings, conferences, and gatherings for organisations and individuals.
Euston
Euston
18, 30, 73, 91, 68, 205, 253, 168, 390, 59
Seating is available in the library. The behind the scenes tour of the archive includes narrow spaces, trip hazards and can be a bit smelly.
Guided tour
10:30–11:30
Library tour including architectural archive of Friends House, peek behind the scene of the strong rooms, courtyard and The Light.
How to book
Please create a free visitor account to book your festival tickets.
Guided tour
12:30–13:30
Library tour including architectural archive of Friends House, peek behind the scene of the strong rooms, courtyard and The Light.
How to book
Please create a free visitor account to book your festival tickets.
Before 1926, the central offices of Quakers in Britain were located in Devonshire House on Bishopsgate in the City of London. Quakers in Britain had been renting rooms there since 1666, prior to which it had been the London home of the Dukes of Devonshire. Over time the Quakers obtained the lease of the building and adjoining ground and erected purpose-built meeting houses and offices. By 1911, the site was no longer of sufficient size for the number of employees that worked there and a committee was set up to consider rebuilding or moving
After a spirited debate among Quakers, it was agreed to sell the Devonshire House site and look for new premises. They purchased the freehold of Endsleigh Gardens for £45,000 in 1923. The choice of Endsleigh Gardens was quite controversial, as it was a greenfield site, and the building of Friends House was criticised by The London Society.
After the new site had been purchased, five Quaker architects were invited to submit outline plans for the new facility. The specifications included a large meeting house capable of seating 1,500 people for the annual gathering of Quakers (Yearly Meeting), a smaller meeting house, office space and a library with strong rooms.
The winning design was created by Hubert Lidbetter, who presented a simple and elegant neo-Georgian design of Portland stone and brick. It consisted of three distinct blocks, each with its own entrance. The eastern section, with the garden entrance, was designed for administration, the central block with the colonnaded entrance on Euston Road contained the large and small meeting spaces, and the west block, with its entrance on Gordon Street, was created for letting out. This western section is now known as Drayton House.
The completed building won the RIBA Bronze medal in 1927 for the best building erected in London that year. It was described in the Architectural Review as "eminently Quakerly … [it] unites common sense with just so much relief from absolute plainness as gives pleasure to the eye". It was Grade II-listed in May 1996.
In 2014, the large meeting house was refurbished by John McAslan + Partners, becoming The Light, a 1,000-delegate capacity auditorium. A 200-square-meter floor space and a skylight were created. In an echo of Hubert Lidbetter’s 1927 RIBA bronze medal, The Light won a RIBA Regional award in 2015. It continues to be the primary venue for Yearly Meeting.
Friends House is home to the Library of the Society of Friends. The library's collection dates from the 1650s, and includes the records and archives of Quakers in Britain as well as one of the largest collections of Quaker books and material in the world. Highlights of the collection include the diaries of Elizabeth Fry, the anti-slavery pamphlet collection and the Swarthmore manuscripts: over 1400 letters of the first Quakers. We also hold the architectural archive of Friends House.
Drop in
community/cultural, museum, art studio, gallery, walk/tour, event
A great little museum set in the Grade 2 listed Ossulston Estate - a prime example of pre-war Social housing - based on Karl Marx Hof in Vienna. Open Tuesday to Friday 9am-5pm, plus Saturday 13th, Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st September 11am-4pm.
G Topham Forest, 1927
