Bermondsey Settlement had a particular concern for children's play. Mary Ward (at the Passmore Edwards Settlement) had pioneered the development of play centres and playgrounds during the early years of the twentieth century and had advocated and organized around better schooling provision for those with disabilities. Workers at Bermondsey also developed provision and had strong links with a number of geographically close and related initiatives at Passmore Edwards, West London Mission (run by the radical Nonconformist leader, Hugh Price Hughes 1847-1902) and some organized by the feminist Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence (1867 - 1954), Mary Neal (1860 - 1944) and others.
Perhaps the most significant figure was Grace Kimmins (1871-1954). With other workers at Bermondsey settlement she set up the Guild of Play. Grace Kimmins argued that education should not be confined to school timetables and scheduled hours but it should, 'invade all public playing-spaces, parks and open places as well as halls of entertainment, and even the streets and alleys of towns and cities' (Brehony 2001). She described the purpose of the Guild of Play as that of the provision for 'little girl children' of, 'vigorous happy dances for recreative purposes on educational lines' (op. cit.). Krimmins also helped to set up The Guild of the Poor Brave Things in 1894 which sought to promote the use of alternative pedagogies - including play - in the education of those with disabilities. The Guild was to be based at Bermondsey Settlement for some time. A further spin-off Heritage Craft School - a residential centre at Chailey in Sussex (established in 1903) - with the aim of enabling those with disability who showed a particular craft talent to train and if possible become self-sufficient.
