One of the main places for entertainment in Whitechapel was Toynbee Hall, situated on Commercial Street, right in the heart of the district where the Jack the Ripper murders occurred.
Founded by the Reverend Samuel Barnet and his wife, Henrietta, Toynbee Hall acted as a place where people could attend educational lectures, but also as a location from which good could be done in the area.
In December, 1889, the people of the district were able to attend a lecture by Field Marshal Garnet Joseph Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley (1833 – 1913), one of the most influential and admired British army generals of the age.
The London Evening News carried a review of the lecture in its edition of Monday the 9th of December, 1889:-
WOLSELEY IN WHITECHAPEL
There was an admirable professor lost in the General.
Last Saturday night the little, twinkling grey eyes of Sir Garnet Wolseley flashed over a Whitechapel audience with the same wide-awake squint that has so often nerved officers and men just before the electrical word, “Charge!”
Everyone, or nearly everyone in the Toynbee Hall, had known something of the Red River Expedition.
It was Sir Garnet the people wished to see and hear; and he took the same trouble to acquit himself as though he stood before a West-end audience.
A GREAT STORYTELLER
He has a certain knack of telling a story that carries the listeners with him, and he told the story of the Red River Expedition in an earnest, slashing, go-ahead style until the ears of the audience were turned aside to catch the next sentence.
This is the secret of true oratory.
He carried their sympathies along with him through miles of the “howling wilderness” that lie between Lake Superior and Fort Garry where he had expected to strike his quarry, Louis Reil.
He did not strike it, for there was no quarry to strike, but he “struck ile” – he made a reputation.
And he has kept it up ever since.
WOLSELEY DESCRIBED
Wolseley’s face and manner are a study.
He has a sort of pert, bird-like look about, and the thin, weather-worn face – a worldly-wise face – has more of the courtier than the soldier in it.
SOME AMUSING JOKES
But to the lecture.
Amidst much solid information as to the trade, natural history and life (social and political) of the inhabitants of the Red River district he interspersed some amusing jokes.
Here is one.
A native chief – a ragged, dirty fellow – called upon him, dressed in a most picturesque costume.
His coat consisted of an animal’s skin with flash brass buttons, and his trousers, which perforce fitted skin tight, consisted of paint, one leg black, the other red, and these colours were carried throughout his whole body.
He talked for half an hour in the Iroquois dialect without drawing breath, and, if a resident in this country, said the lecturer, he would make an excellent County Councillor.
This smart fillip at the inordinate volubility of our Radical Councillors, and their many-coloured political principles evoked much laughter.
THE LIFE OF A CAMPAIGNER
The rough-and-tumble life of the campaigner was described in a very racy manner by his lordship.
He confessed that, during the campaign, “he had a real good time of it; had not the trouble of washing or shaving himself, went to bed and got up when be liked – was, in fact, transported backward to those primitive times when wild in woods the noble savage ran.”
AN ELOQUENT LECTURER
Lord Wolseley illustrated his lecture by means of a map, and listening to his lucid explanations of roads and routes, one could not help sympathising with the followers of Pestalozzi for losing so eloquent a lecturer.