May Scott’s Hoxton Hall: Intersectional rootedness, social change, and community care at the Hall that May built.

It’s 1959 and the slim figure of May Scott travels the short distance from her flat at Arnold Circus to Hoxton Hall. A bunch of keys jangle at her hip as the school-bound children shout: “‘Hello May, are you going to May Scott’s?’!” From 1945 to 1975, Hoxton Hall was May Scott’s in the hearts and minds of many Hoxtonites. Her devotion and drive as Warden would propel the war-torn building into a fixture of the Hoxton landscape. It was a meeting place, a skills centre, an entertainment venue, a dance hall, a social work hub, a place of Quaker friendship, a outward-bound nexus, a community café with warm buns and hot sweet tea, and a space that offered warm welcome to the displaced refugees of the war and the immigrants that arrived with the collapse of Empire. May Scott presided over it all, with a quiet dignity and grace that rivalled her passion. This talk takes you through the highlights of her Wardenship, to explore the social, personal, and professional impact May had on all she welcomed there.