The YWA was founded partly as a tribute to the dead of the First World War but mainly as a meeting place for young Welsh migrants.

At lunch hosted by Picton Davies at one of his hotels in July 1928, Lord Atkin and David Lloyd George spoke in support of a movement to provide headquarters for the Young Wales Association in London.

As a result, Sir Howell J. Williams, a building contractor and London County Council member, purchased a site of just over 15,000 square feet (1,400 m2) bounded by Doughty Street and Mecklenburgh Square on the West and Gray's Inn Road on the East, and offered it as a free gift to the Young Wales Association.

Sir Howell J. Williams later rebuilt the properties that fronted onto Gray's Inn Road and completed the main hall of the current London Welsh Centre.

[3] The properties on Doughty Street and Mecklenburgh Square have since been sold off for residential use, but the premises fronting on to Gray's Inn Road remain in use as the modern-day London Welsh Centre.

Lord Atkin was chair of the newly formed Welsh Services Club, which was opened by David Lloyd George.

Some idea of the range of activities at the London Welsh Centre in the post-war years can be gathered from the announcement in Y Ddinas for just one month, January 1948.