In 1965 R. D. Laing and his associates asked the Lesters for permission to use the Hall as an alternative community, influenced by the World War II Northfield experiments, for treating people affected by mental health crisis.

The aim of the experiment by the Philadelphia Association was to create a model for non-restraining, non-drug therapies for those people seriously affected by schizophrenia.

The idea of starting this type of community was an initiative suggested by Mary Barnes an artist and former nurse and, first resident as patient.

[5] Doris, Muriel and Kingsley Lester grew up in wealth and comfort, though there was a family connection to the poor East End districts.

Their father, also called Henry Lester started work at the Thames Ironworks at Blackwall and Canning Town at the age of ten.

The service was soon expanded to include activities for older groups with the aim to provide for the development of the whole person – the mind, body and spirit – in an environment which brought people together regardless of class, race and religion.

Doris and Muriel Lester bought an old chapel on the corner of Eagling Road in 1915, which was then re-decorated and fitted out by local volunteers.

It was a "people's house", where friends and neighbours, workmen, factory girls and children of Bow came together for "worship, study, fun and friendship".

The aims of the centre were expressed on the membership cards as "a place of fellowship in which people can meet for social, educational and recreational intercourse without barriers of class, colour or creed.

At the end of the war, Doris and Muriel joined a march to the House of Commons demanding that milk be sent to Germany, where people were starving.

The foundation stones represent: Vision, Nature, Rhythm and Music; Beauty, Health, Education, Motherhood, Internationalism and Fellowship.

[12] He found it easy to relate to the local people, with Muriel Lester observing He always enjoyed the swift repartee of Cockney wit.

Muriel Lester visited the Far East, USA, China, Japan and India to report to the League of Nations on drug investigations in the regions.

Following World War II, with the welfare state having undertaken much of the work advocated by the Lester sisters, Kingsley Hall continued on a quieter note as a youth hostel and community activity centre.

[20] Based on the notion that psychosis, a state of reality akin to living in a waking dream, is not an illness simply to be eliminated through the electric shocks favoured in the Western tradition of the time but, as in other cultures, a state of trance which could even be valued as mystical or Shamanistic, it sought to allow schizophrenic people the space to explore their madness and internal chaos.

Along with resident psychiatrist Joseph Berke, Mary later went on to write Two Accounts of a Journey Through Madness, describing her stay at Kingsley Hall and use of her mental condition as a vehicle for painting and creative expression.

The activities of residents in the "no-holds barred" experiment made the local community largely hostile to the project, and there were regular reports of harassment.

During the filming Richard Attenborough united with the Kingsley Hall Action Group to raise enough funds to carry out an extensive refurbishing.

Kingsley Hall was reopened 2 March 1985 with events in the week preceding, and has since gone on to be used for activities ranging from youth groups, holiday outings or arts and photography workshops, for advice surgeries, wedding functions and educational projects.

The committed staff and volunteers were devastated by this destruction, but continued to run youth groups, advice sessions, clubs and meetings.