Mildmay Mission for Christian conferences and missionary training was set up in 1864 at St Jude's Mildmay Park by Rev William Pennefather (1816-73) who had moved from Ireland. The Missionary Ladies (later Deaconesses - part nurse, part social worker) tended the poor of the East End during the 1866 Cholera epidemic and lived in a house on the compound.
The evangelical operations were expanded by Pennefather's widow Catherine (1817-93) after his death and nearby organisations were affiliated.
The 1869-70 Conference Hall on Newington Green Road held 2500 for meetings and services. It closed in 1954 and was demolished in 1959.
5 photographs show some of the properties standing on the site (formerly hunting site of King Henry VIII) at the time of purchase by the council.
