CHILD WELFARE

Barnado's

Dr John Barnado was an Irishman who had Spanish ancestry. He came to London in order to acquire medical training at the London Hospital. His intention was that once he had qualified he would become a missionary in the Far East. However, he was shocked by the conditions that he found in London and instead he chose to work in the East End. In 1866 he opened his first home for destitute children at No. 18 Stepney Causeway. His work was greatly aided by the philanthropist the Lord Shaftesbury. By the time of Barnardo's death in 1905 his charity had 96 homes that accommodated 8500 children.

Orphanages fell out of fashion in the late 1960s. Barnado's embraced the change and started closing its homes. The charity established a property development business that redeveloped its properties. In 1981 the Barnado's charity closed the last of its residential homes.

Location: 18 Stepney Causeway, E1 0JW (purple, blue)

Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel Road, E1 1FR (blue, grey)

Website: www.barnados.org.uk

Barnado's Old Boys

Barnado s old boys include the writer Leslie Thomas and the clothes designer Bruce Oldfield.

The Children's Society

The Church of England's Children's Society was founded in 1881.

The Children's Society was formerly known as the Waif's & Strays Society.

The Children's Society had been a provider of residential child care.

Website: www.childrenssociety.org.uk

The Thomas Coram Foundation for Children

For many years Captain Thomas Coram lived and worked in North America. Upon his return to London he was shocked by the sight of destitute children in the city's streets. He secured financial backing from a number of aristocrats and bought a 56-acre site in Lamb's Conduit Fields. In 1742 the construction of the Foundling Hospital was begun.

The composer George Frederick Handel and the painter and engraver William Hogarth were amongst those who helped the venture.¹ The former actively fostered the musical life of its Chapel.

The Hospital was inundated with children. In 1760 it responded to this situation by introducing stricter conditions for its acceptance of infants. The child had to be aged under a year, in good health, illegitimate, born to a father who was untraceable, and a mother who previously had been of good character.

In 1926 the Hospital sold its London estate and moved to Redhill. Subsequently, it moved to Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire.

In 2004 the Foundling Museum opened in Brunswick Square.

Location: 49 Mecklenburgh Square, WC1N 2QA. The building contains a re-assembly of the original Court Room. (red, blue)

Website: www.coram.org.uk

¹. Like Coram, Hogarth and Handel did not have children of their own.

The Old Coram Association

The Old Coram Association is composed of former Coram children. Each year its members celebrate Coram Day.

Website: www.oca1947.co.uk

Thomas Coram Research Unit

The Institute of Education's Thomas Coram Research Unit was set up in 1973. Its inaugural director was Jack Tizard (d.1979). The projects that it worked on included Young Children At School In The Inner City (1988) and Black, White or Mixed Race (1993).

Website: www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/departments-and-centres/centres/thomas-coram-research-unit

Gingerbread

The Mental Deficiency Act of 1913 enabled spinster mothers to be categorised as moral imbeciles , as well as mental ones , and placed in lunatic asylums.

Lettice Fisher believed their children were innocent and that if they were to make something of their lives then their parents should be encouraged to stay together and raise them. Therefore, in 1918 she founded the National Council for The Unmarried Mother and Her Child.

The Adoption Act of 1958 opened the possibility for birth fathers to be consulted.

The Mental Deficiency Act of 1913 was repealed in 1959.

Until the 1960s unmarried mother was expected to relinquish their babies.

Shelagh Delaney's (1938-2011) play A Taste of Honey (1958) addressed the subject.

In 1987 the concept of illegitimacy was abolished in law.

Website: www.gingerbread.org.uk

Greencoat Hospital

Greencoat Place commemorates the Greencoat Hospital, which provided relief for poor, fatherless children. The institution was founded in 1633 by King Charles I.

Location: Greencoat Place, SW1P 1DS (orange, brown)

Kid's Company

Kid's Company was a charity that provides emotional, educational, and practical support for vulnerable inner city children and young people.

Camila Batmanghelidjh was born into a wealthy family in Iran. At the aged of nine she decided that it would be her life's work to help children who were less privileged than she was. She was sent to school in Britain. In 1979 the Iranian Revolution occurred. Her family's assets were seized and she was left stranded. Ms Batmanghelidjh studied drama at university and subsequently trained as a psychotherapist. She came to the view that the existing social care system was failing many inner city children. In 1996 she set up Kids Company.

In 2015 the Metropolitan Police's Child Abuse Unit started an inquiry into historic allegations of abuse. This unnerved some of Kid's Company's donors. The government asked for the funds it had supplied to be returned. Within days the organisation collapsed.

The Official Receiver launched a High Court action against Camila Batmanghelidjh and seven of Kids Company's trustees. In 2021 the court rejected the claim that she and the trustees had mismanaged Kid's Company. The following year the Charity Commission issued a report that stated that the organisation had repeatedly failed to pay tax and its workers. The document declared that there had been no criminality or safeguarding failures.

Location: Sherbourne House, 34 Decima Street, SE1 4QQ

Website: wwwkidsco.org.uk

Military Orphanages

Caledonian Schools

The casualty rates during the protracted rates during French Revolutionary (1792-1801) and Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815) led to the foundation of a number of military-associated orphanages. The Caledonian Asylum (1815) was for the children of Scottish soldiers and sailors; it gave its name to the Caledonian Road.

In 1995 it was announced that the Royal Caledonian Schools at Bushey, Hertfordshire, would close.

The Duke of York's Headquarters

The Duke of York & Albany (1763-1827), a son of King George III (1738-1820), was a Field Marshal and the Commander-in-Chief of the Army. He had no pretensions to being a field commander. However, he was a competent administrator who knew the Army well enough to be able to correct many of its short-comings. He was also respected for his political independence.

Chelsea House was demolished in order that The Royal Military Asylum school (1803) might be built on the site, becoming in 1909 the headquarters of the County of London Territorial Army. The school moved to Dover.

Location: The Duke of York's Headquarters, The King's Road, SW3 4RY (red, purple)

The N.S.P.C.C.

Benjamin Waugh (1839-1908).

Location: 26 Crooms Hill, SE10 8ER

33 The Green, Southgate, N14 6EN

Website: www.nspcc.org.uk

David Backhouse 2024