This oil painting, from the University's fine art collection, depicts Miss Helen Augusta Hope, after whom the Hope Hall building on the University’s Streatham Campus is named.

Helen Hope was notable in that she was Bath’s first woman city councillor and also one of its first female city magistrates.

__She became the first female councillor on Bath City Council in 1909 and on the photograph below, Helen Hope can just be seen at the back in the left-hand corner of the Council Chamber. __

Helen Hope's humanitarian ideals were further realised when she established, with a colleague Consuelo de Reyes, a venue called Citizen House in Bath in 1913. The purpose of Citizen House was to be a space or meeting place to exchange ideas and skills, and for education and arts, for all classes of society in the Bath community.

Citizen House proved an invaluable resource to the community during World War I when it provided practical support and training for wives and families of soldiers absent or killed in the war. It would later be the inspiration for the creation of the Little Theatre which still exists in Bath, these days in the form of a cinema.

Helen Hope came from a well-to-do family. Her Great Grandfather was William Hope (1741 - 1827), a merchant who lived in Liverpool, where the famous Hope Street was named after him. Her brother William Bateman Hope was a Liberal MP from 1906-1910, representing North Somerset. See the link here for more information about him, including his portrait which strongly resembles Helen in her portrait.

So what is Helen Hope’s connection with the University of Exeter? This came through her working partnership with Consuelo de Reyes, her colleague and director of the community theatre group Citizen House Players in Bath. It is understood that Sir Hector Hetherington, the first Principal of the University College of the South West of England (1920 -24) which was the predecessor organisation to the University, met Helen Hope and Consuelo de Reyes when he gave a WEA (Workers’ Educational Association) class at Citizen House. When Hetherington mentioned that the college had just lost the tutor for the women students, de Reyes offered to take up the post. She also taught English and Drama, helped to run the Dramatic Society and opened a refectory in a hut in the grounds in Gandy Street - a tiny precursor of Devonshire House which rapidly became the social centre of the college community. She also took on the wardenship of Hartwell House female hall of residence on the Streatham Campus, until she eventually returned to Bath to run Citizen House.

Helen Hope died in 1922. The United Methodist magazine on Thursday 29 June of that year reported,

“Miss Helen Augusta Hope, Bath's first woman City councillor and first lady magistrate, niece of Mr.Samuel Morley, M.P., and sister of the late Mr. Bateman Hope, M.P., died at Tenby last week.”

When Helen Hope passed away in 1922 she left a large legacy to de Reyes, including the Citizen Theatre and all its contents. Reyes gave money from the legacy to finance a lasting memorial to Miss Hope in the form of extensions and renovations to Hartwell House hall of residence. In turn, the University College Council renamed the building 'Hope Hall', which is still its name today. Hope Hall was officially opened in 1927 by the Duchess of York and was for many years a female-only hall of residence on the University’s Streatham Campus, being converted only recently into offices.

Below you can see the Hope Hall Dining Room in the 1920s when it was a hall of residence. If you look closely you can see the portrait of Helen Hope on the back wall, to the left.

As for the painting itself, the painter is unknown but perhaps it was painted by one of the members of Bath’s community who attended Citizen House? It still hangs in its rightful place - Hope Hall.

*Grateful acknowledgement is given to Patricia Barber and Sara Pelling whose research made this article possible. *