Quakers were active in Thanet from the 1660s, with the closest meeting house in nearby Canterbury from 1687.
Local Quaker philanthropist, Michael Yoakley (1631-1708) started life as a farmhand on Drapers Farm in Margate. Despite his humble beginnings, he rose to become a successful merchant based in London. In 1665, his uncle Thomas Yoakley was imprisoned for being a Quaker. Michael was very aware of the problems the poor faced in old age. He built almshouses in Spitalfields and also made provision in his will for building the almshouses in Draper’s Close named after him. There is a meeting house integral to the almshouses.
Elizabeth Fry, (1780–1845), the prison reformer retired to Ramsgate, and attended meeting at Yoakley house, on three successive Sundays, prior to her death.
Our meeting house
The building was converted to use as a meeting house in 1997. Originally built in 1925, it was designed in the picturesque style, combining neo-Tudor and Arts and Crafts elements, by local architect Edgar Ranger. The property was built as a flower shop and later adapted for use as a home; the large addition at the rear (the present meeting room) was probably built in the 1950s. Minor internal adaptations were made for its use as a meeting house.
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