Arranged by provenance into the following sections:

• Records of Liverpool University Settlement
• Administrative Files of Liverpool Settlement (South)
• Records of Liverpool Settlement (South) and the Victoria Settlement

The idea of a Settlement was for some time mooted in University College, Liverpool, especially by student members of the College's Christian Union, but the first definite steps were taken in January 1906 when the Reverend Kelman of Edinburgh University Settlement addressed a meeting at the University. Soon afterwards a Committee was formed which drew up a scheme for a Settlement for men only, in view of the fact that the Victoria Settlement at 294 Netherfield Road, which had been at work since 1897, catered for women only.

Originally it was proposed that the Settlement should be in Everton close to the Victoria Settlement but in view of communications with the Florence Institute for Boys in Mill Street and the David Lewis Hotel in Nile Street it was decided to establish the Settlement in the South end of Liverpool. The settlement opened at 129 Park Street in September 1906. However, largely through the efforts of Mr F J Marquis, James Reynolds and Charles Whitley, enough money was raised to build the Settlement in Nile Street on a site adjoining the David Lewis Hotel. The new building was opened in 1913.

The David Lewis Hotel and club had been erected in 1906 by the executors of the founder of Lewis's Limited. Its links with the University Settlement were strengthened by the appointment of its Warden, Mr Marquis, to become the Warden of the Settlement also in 1909, a post he held until 1920. Dr Ernest Griffith, who became Warden of the Settlement in 1922, developed the contacts of the Settlement with other bodies and it was to house the various boys' gangs in the district and scout troops that he conceived the idea which led to the building of York House in 1926. It was during this period that the link between Liverpool College and boys who lived near the Settlement was first established, and that the David Lewis premises were used for educational classes for the unemployed a number of whom in 1935-1936 under the Settlement's auspices assisted in the excavations at Maiden Castle and Eddisbury.

After the second world war there were a number of developments as well as research projects with which the Settlement and its associated clubs were associated. Before the War members and associates of the Settlement had carried out a good deal of research some of which was published, notably inHousing Problems in Liverpool (1931). With a view to identifying particular social problems a number of research projects were instituted in the fifteen or so years after the end of the war, which resulted in the publication of a number of papers (including Juvenile Delinquency 1951 and Life After Sixty[1961-1962]) and the introduction of a number of new schemes, including the Rathbone Street Adventure Playground, the Windsor Junior Boys Club and the Social Workers' Luncheon Club. In 1946 women were also admitted to the Settlement.

On the 10 April 1976 the title of Liverpool University Settlement was changed to the Liverpool Settlement (South)