[an error occurred while processing this directive] Queen Victoria Orphanage, Maida Vale, London
Ancestry UK

Queen Victoria Orphanage, Maida Vale, London

The Queen Victoria Orphanage, on Shirland Road, Maida Vale, was opened in around 1881. It was run by the Community of the Sisters of the Church, an Anglican sisterhood of nuns sometimes referred to as the Kilburn Order, in conjunction with the Church Extension Association, who operated a number of other institutions.

Queen Victoria Orphanage, Maida Vale. © Peter Higginbotham

The Victoria Orphanage received girls 'who are literally without a friend in the world'. In practice, this comprised girls who had lost both parents, had no other relatives capable of supporting them, and had no-one else willing to fund their maintenance at a paying orphanage. Wherever possible, the orphanage took members of the same family. The girls were trained for employment as domestic servants or schoolmistresses.

The Orphanage closed in around 1930. The building no longer exists.

Records

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  • Community of the Sisters of the Church holds records for homes run by the Order. Enquiries should be directed to: Community Archivist, St Michael's Convent, Vicarage Way, Gerrards Cross, Bucks SL9 8 AT. Email archives@sistersofthechurch.org. (Note: no records are held for individual convalescent children for either St Mary's Convalescent Home, Thanet, Kent, or the Abraham Ormerod Convalescent Home, Lytham St Anne's.)

Bibliography

  • Anonymous, A Valiant Victorian: The Life and Times of Mother Emily Ayckbowm 1830-1900 of the Community of the Sisters of the Church (1964, A. R. Mowbray & Co. Ltd., London)