Conway Hall is owned by South Place Ethical Society, an educational charity whose aims are the study and dissemination of ethical principles based on humanism and freethought, the cultivation of a rational and humane way of life, and the advancement of research and education in all relevant fields.

It was opened in 1929 and built at a cost of about £45,000. The name was chosen in honour of Moncure Daniel Conway (b.1832-d.1907), anti-slavery advocate, out-spoken supporter of free thought and biographer of Thomas Paine.