In 2024, this room was renamed from the Wolfson Room to 'The Beatrice Webb Room' after Beatrice Webb FBA (1848-1943), the first woman to be elected as a Fellow at the British Academy in 1931. Beatrice was a leading social reformer, poverty researcher and campaigner, writer, and co-founder of the London School of Economics. She was a member of the Fabian Society, and in the years before the First World War, Beatrice prepared the political and intellectual ground for what later became the welfare state. Her research included works on the co-operative movement, trade unionism, and labour rights, much of which she co-authored with her husband Sidney Webb (1859-1947).
Number 11 was occupied by the Earl of Arundel 1846-1856. It then became the home of William Gladstone, who during his time here (1856-1875) served as Chancellor of the Exchequer and then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Gladstone served a record four terms as Prime Minister, and is credited for expanding the political and state system to function beyond the reach of vested interests among the upper classes. Notable too was his interest in Ireland and belief in Irish Home Rule – he introduced many reforms in Ireland including de-establishing the Church of Ireland and tackling unfair landlords.
His father John Gladstone’s significant role as a plantation slave owner in the Caribbean is well documented, as are William Gladstone’s shifting views on slavery throughout his life (he used his first Commons speech to argue in favour of compensation for slave owners, something his father John would receive after the abolition of slavery, while later describing slavery as 'by the far the foulest crime that taints the history of mankind').