The Early Years -Anniversary Review Part 2

The YMCA was not the first of its kind; there had been other groups set up for young man, some with a religious basis. Its rapid growth, however, was unmatched by anything that had gone before.

 The strong evangelical Christianity of its members, which was not confined to one denomination, was a firm foundation for success. The time and the place of the YMCA’s foundation were also important. As Britain became industrialised, communications improved-the first railway opened in the 1830's and 1840. The drapery trade was the fastest growing, most efficient business and London was its heart. Hitchcock and Rogers had a wholesale business with contacts across London and in other towns and cities, making it easy for news of the YMCA to spread. This, along with the influential friends George Williams had made while worshiping at the King’s Weigh House Chapel, helped to seal the YMCA’s growth.

The association expanded quickly. Members sent a letter to other drapers’ houses across London and numbers grew so that within weeks the YMCA had hired a room in St Martin’s Coffee House, Ludgate Hill. Soon, other branches were  shooting up - elsewhere in London and in Leeds and Manchester in 1845, and in Taunton and Bath in 1846. During 1845 the first paid employee - a secretary and, missionary - was appointed. By 1855 there were 40 local YMCAs outside London, which had 6,000 members and came into contact with about 25,000 young men.

George Williams's memorial in St Paul's Cathedral

Outside Britain, the Great Exhibition of 1851 helped forge early links with young men's associations in other countries and in 1855 the first YMCA International Conference was held in Paris, and confederation formed which was to become the World Alliance of YMCA's.

George Williams’s connection through business and chapel meant the YMCA was also gaining the support of rich and prominent men. By 1845, 22 of London’s most respected preachers were vice-Presidents and by 1859 the clergy of St Paul’s Cathedral were involved. The famous philanthropist Lord Shaftesbury was president from 1851 until his death in 1886.

In 1845 a series of lectures began, on subjects from history and mythology to art. Their setting of Exeter Hall, in Strand, in 1847, and bought respect for the YMCA in intellectual circles.

In 1849, the London YMCA its headquarters to new premises in Gresham Street, with a library and reading rooms. Classes were held in German, Latin, French, Hebrew, Greek, English and Arithmetic and it was decided to open the doors to “associate members,” who weren’t necessarily Christians but were “of good moral character”. They could pay £1 to use the library and reading room but had no voting rights.

         Fourteen years later, “The Quarterly Messenger” said of Leeds YMCA:

        “...its appliances of intellectual culture and mental improvement have been eminently           successful, and it holds an honorable position amongst the educational institutions of the country…”

 After a lull during the 1860's, in the 1870's the  YMCA again began to grow. In 1881 the London YMCA bought Exeter Hall, the well-known meeting and concert hall where YMCA lectures had been held years earlier, as its headquarters. For Georges Williams this was a dream-come-true - a symbol of the association’s success.

Fist Membership Card

 It became home in 1895 to London Central YMCA, which was formed in that year when the Exeter Hall association merged with Aldersgate Street and Cornhill YMCAs.

 In 1882 a new body - the National Council of YMCA's, covering England, Ireland and Wales- was formed.

 Other countries already had national bodies to co-ordinate with of local YMCAs. On December 8, 1882, a meeting was held to set one up in Britain with representatives from London and the rest of the country. George Williams became President of the Council, which was based at Exeter Hall and paid from his own pocket for three travelling secretaries to visit YMCAs.

The impact of this upon the movement in Britain was staggering. In 1882 there were 188 local YMCAs by the YMCA’s 50th birthday in 1894, that number had grown to 405 - one new association had been formed on average every three weeks!

 The YMCA marked its 50th jubilee with festivities in London which included representatives from far flung associations from China and Uruguay to Kurdistan.

From around 1880 until the first world war, the work of the YMCA was expanding to include boys as well as young men, and the idea of the "four-fold programme" was developing. The programme - brainchild of Arthur K. Yapp, a very influential YMCA figure who was national secretary at the time - emphasised the importantce of religiou, educational physical and social programmes in the YMCAs work.

Taken from the 150th Anniversary Review