Quakers started meeting in Wimbledon for the first-time during World War II.
In a newsletter, dated December 1944, it says that Wimbledon Meeting had to be suspended because the house where they were meeting was bombed and the residents evacuated. They temporarily reverted to attending the meeting in Kingston. The Friends ambulance unit was active in several areas in clearing up debris from bombs.
During the 1950s, Wimbledon Quaker Meeting led a nomadic existence meeting, for instance, in Post Office premises in Queens Road, subsequently in SHARE in Kingston Road and the Conservative Association in Trinity Road (which was very gloomy), but also in houses of members and attenders.
October Preparative Meeting (the name of our Business Meeting then), in 1972, decided to seek a permanent home, and a premises committee was set up. They soon found the present building at a cost of £15,000. A deposit was raised, and one Friend offered an interest free loan of £3,000. ‘Six Weeks Meeting’ (the organisation responsible for the upkeep of all London Quaker meeting houses, now called ‘London Quaker Property Trust’) agreed to provide £12,000 and the two sums together clinched the deal. “The Friend” of 2nd March 1973 mentions that the premises committee and Preparative meeting had agreed to allow a young Quaker couple to live in the upstairs flat. They were Mike and Jean Jenn. The first meeting for worship in 40 Spencer Hill Road was on the 28th January 1973. This was celebrated on 5th January 2003 – 30 years later!
Wimbledon Quaker meeting has had a Meeting for Worship at 40 Spencer Hill Road every Sunday since January 1973. During the decades from then onwards several weddings have taken place. On 15th August 2013 the Meeting House became an approved venue for the registration of civil partnerships. During the period from 1990 to 2017 there were regular meetings on Wednesday evenings with a programme of lectures and discussions on a large range of topics: these were all open to the public. Wimbledon Friends have been very active in interfaith activities and, in the early days, especially in building connections with Wimbledon Synagogue which was then meeting in Court Hope Villas. Members and attenders also held a weekly Peace Vigil in the centre of Wimbledon for many years.
On Saturday 20th July 2002 the meeting celebrated the 350th anniversary of the Religious Society of Friends with a Family Open Day when more than 50 non-Quakers came.