The settlement movement was one of a raft of reforming efforts emerging in Victorian times in response to urban disadvantage. The following ngrams indicate how much was written over time about each.
The settlement movement has had relatively small but continuous attention on a scale akin to the drive for garden cities. The catalysts for all three were well known to each other.
More attention was grabbed by efforts to stop people drinking alcohol, professionalising social work and public health.
In time all of these ideas for change were brought together in the proposition for a welfare state.