History
Our Ark
By the early 1930s, there were more than one million Girl Guides and Girl Scouts around the world ithin the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. A World Bureau for the Association had recently been established in London and it was becoming apparent that the Girl Guides who visited London needed a place to stay. The World Bureau regularly received requests for accommodation and during the World Committee meeting in Scotland in July 1937 the idea of a World Centre in London was discussed.
The Committee agreed that a Guide hostel should be built in London. It also decided that the World Bureau would need more space and there would be many advantaged of building the World Bureau and World Centre next to each other. Dame Katharine Furse, the first director of the World Bureau, became the driving force behind the project and wrote to all the member countries of the World Association about the proposals.
The new centre, of course, could not be built without money. So Dame Katherine launched the ‘Pennies Appeal’ in her Thinking Day letter to the WAGGGS member countries. "We already have £300 to enable the office to start in its new premises…but we need money to provide the house…If every Brownie, Guide, Ranger and Old Guide…would send us one penny on Thinking Day we should receive 1,320,000 pennies, or £5,500. Just think what a world house we could set up with that!"
On 22 February 1938, the pennies began to pour in and soon there were enough to purchase the chosen site: three houses on Palace Street, one of which was to become the World Bureau, with the remaining two forming London’s first World Centre. Our Ark, 11-13 Palace Street, London.
The Palace Street houses had been built in the 17th century over the Tatchbrook – one of the many streams used to flow out to join the River Thames, but which are now hidden beneath the paving stones of London. The buildings were in a convenient, central location, across the road from the side entrance to the British Guide Headquarters and very close to Buckingham Palace. From the windows, Her Majesty’s Footguards could be seen marching by.
The first guests started to arrive a few months before the official opening. In line with the international emphasis of the World Centre, the very first visitor was the Swiss wife of an Englishman who led an American Girl Scout troop in Peking. On 2 May 1939, The WAGGGS’ second World Centre was ready. Guides from Hungary, India, Norway, Luxembourg, Sweden, Switzerland, South Africa, and the USA formed a guard of honour to welcome Lady Bowater, Lady Mayoress of London, who performed the official opening ceremony. Our Ark was created to be a place where Guides from all countries could meet and feel at home.
Our Ark remained open throughout the Second World War, becoming a safe haven for many Guides and Scouts from across the world. By the end of the war, Our Ark had already established a few special traditions. Flags were kept on tables to represent the various nationalities present, visitors could come for house tours, the staff had animal nicknames, and rooms were named after countries or places which had helped pay for the furnishings.
Olave House
During the 1950s, Our Ark’s popularity continued to grow. But by 1956 the 21-year lease was coming to an end and both the World Bureau and World Centre had outgrown its space. The World onference, held in Brazil in 1957, decided to appeal to all members to raise the money to house both the World Bureau and Our Ark under the same roof. Girl Guides and Girl Scouts from all over the world sponsored bricks, and British Guides raised money for the garden.
The sear
ch for a new location for Our Ark continued and finally led to 45 Longridge Road, Earls Court, a small hotel occupying two Victorian houses, which would be able to accommodate 43 guests and six members of staff on five floors. The World Bureau, however, decided to establish their offices in the old premises of the Boy Scouts International Bureau. In 1963, during a special ceremony presided over by the World Chief Guide, Olave Baden-Powell, the Centre was renamed Olave House in her honour.
The ceremony took place on Our Ark’s Silver Jubilee, on 5 November 1963. For the next twenty years, Olave House continued to be a vibrant centre for Girl Guides and Girl Scouts around the world. Representatives from over fifty countries stayed in the hostel each year.
Pax Lodge
By 1978, however plans were underway to move the premises again. The idea of the Olave Centre Project formed and three years later, the Project had a site: 12c Lyndhurst Road in the residential suburb of Hampstead. An area famous for its artistic and literary connections, as well as for Hampstead Heath, 800 acres of open land high up on the hill overlooking London.
A new name had to be found for the empty lot that was to become the World Centre and it was ecided to name it ‘Pax Lodge’ as a tribute to the Baden-Powells who had used the Latin word for peace ‘pax’ in the names of their two homes, Pax Hill in England and Paxtu in Kenya. The name also highlights that peace is an important part of the Girl Guiding/Girl Scouting Movement.
The groundbreaking ceremony for Pax Lodge was held on 8 November 1988. The following year on 6 May, The Honorable Mrs. Betty Clay, daughter of Lord and Lady Baden-Powell, unveiled the foundation stone – on the fiftieth anniversary of Our Ark and 100 years after the birth of the World Chief Guide. The building took around 18 months, but by July 1990, staff was ready to move into Pax Lodge. The new Centre could accommodate 59 people and had a large dining room, kitchen, lobby lounge, library, resource centre, shop, TV room, guest kitchen, and a staff/resident wing.
On 1 August, Pax Lodge received its first guests. The World Centre was active again after a two-year break. On 29 September 1990, the Guider-in-Charge and members of staff walked four miles across London from Olave House to Pax Lodge carrying the World Flag. They ended up raising £500 for the centre in the process. The doors to Pax Lodge were donated by members of the Baden-Powell family and, in an official ‘door opening’ ceremony, were opened by Natasha King, great-granddaughter of the Founder and World Chief Guide. In doing so they carried on a tradition initiated by Olave Baden-Powell who often gave a donation towards the doors when asked to open a new building. Her intention was to symbolically express that the doors of Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting are open to women and girls to prepare them for the outside world.
On 15 March 1991, H.R.H. The Princess Benedikte of Denmark officially opened Pax Lodge. Since opening, Pax Lodge has welcomed over 62,000 guests, including day visitors from more than 65 countries. It has become an international gathering place for friendship, education and accommodation, and it is an ideal place to stay when visiting London.
Ten years later, Pax Lodge celebrated its 10th birthday with a weekend of activities. The weekend included a day out in London visiting the London Eye and other attractions, a visit to Leeds Castle in Kent, a party for the local Brownies and an official reception for past volunteers, staff, committee members and other supporters and friends of Pax Lodge. Over 100 people attended, with some traveling as far as South Africa, Australia, Canada, USA, and Lebanon.
