The Mary Ward Centre, previously the Mary Ward Settlement, is an adult education college located in London. It was founded by Mary Augusta Ward as the Passmore Edwards Settlement, financed by John Passmore Edwards.
There is one centre at 42 Queen Square, where over 1,000 adult education classes are offered.
The former centre at 5 Tavistock Place (1898), designed by Arnold Dunbar Smith and Cecil Claude Brewer is considered to be one of the best Arts and Crafts buildings in London. The original centre (originally the Passmore Edwards Settlement) is notable for two reasons: It was the site of the historic debate on women's suffrage between Millicent Garrett Fawcett and Mary (Mrs Humphry) Ward, Feb 1909 (Ward was president of the Anti-Suffrage League; she was decisively defeated); secondly the building housed the first fully equipped classrooms for children with disabilities and pioneered the importance of play within children's education.
Famous quotes containing the words mary, ward and/or centre:
“Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”
—Bible: New Testament, Luke 10:41,42.
Jesus to Martha.
“Moral qualities rule the world, but at short distances the senses are despotic.”
—Mrs. H. O. Ward (1824–1899)
“St. Augustine described the nature of God as a circle whose centre was everywhere, and its circumference nowhere.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)