Lambeth London Borough Council Homes
Children's establishments run at some time in their history by Lambeth London Borough Council.
London (SE/SW Postal Areas)
- 19 St Saviour's Road, Brixton SW2
- Hostel, 40 Stockwell Park Road, Brixton SW9
- Knowle Close, Brixton SW9
- 14 Calais Street, Camberwell SE5
- Ingleton House Hostel, 4 Rectory Grove, Clapham SW4†
- 9A Rathmel Drive, Clapham SW4
- 9A Rathmell Drive, Clapham SW4
- Highland Road, Lambeth SE19
- Children's Homes, 35/35A Lancaster Road, South Norwood SE25†
- Cumberlow Lodge Remand Home for Girls, Chalfont Road, South Norwood SE25
- 17 Lorn Road, Stockwell SW9
- 90 Angell Road, Stockwell SW9
- 25 Garrads Road, Streatham SW16
- 44 Chestnut Road, West Norwood SE27
- 85 Tivoli Road, West Norwood SE27
- South Vale Reception Home, Linton Grove, West Norwood SE27
- Samuel House, 38 Knight's Hill, West Norwood SE27
- Stephany House, Knight's Hill, West Norwood SE27
Surrey
- 8 Nottingham Road, Croydon
- Chevington, 25 Warham Road, Croydon
- The Elms, 90 Coombe Road, Croydon
- Wood Vale Short-stay and Reception Home, 32 Elder Road, Norwood†
- Shirley Oaks Residential Schools, 121 Wickham Road, Shirley†
- Almond House Hostel for Girls, 121 Wickham Road, Shirley†
- Gresham Place Residential Nursery, Portley Wood Road, Whyteleafe
Sussex
- Thornwick Residential Nursery, 10 Selwyn Road, Eastbourne
† indicates homes at some time also run by a county council.
Records
The involvement of local authorities in the running of children's homes dates from 1930, when they took over the running of the poor relief system previously administered by Boards of Guardians. Surviving records for council-run children's homes may be held in each council's own internal archives. Prior to 1991, however, when a legal requirement was introduced for councils to retain records of children leaving their care, the survival of such records is very variable. Contact details for local authorities in the UK can be found on the website of the Care Leavers Association (CLA). The CLA also provides guidance on accessing childhood care files, which are normally only open to the individuals they relate to.
Locating local authority records has been complicated by the various local government reorganizations that have taken place in recent times, such as the abolition of the London County Council in 1965, and the major nationwide restructuring in 1974 in which many administrative areas were created, amended or eliminated.
Older records may sometimes be placed with the relevant county or borough record office. Many of these repositories have online catalogues of their holdings and also contribute to the National Archives' Discovery database. Note that records containing personal data usually have access closed for a period of fifty years or more.
Older material relating to Lambeth Council homes may exist at:
- The Ancestry UK website has two collections of London workhouse records (both name searchable):
- The Find My Past website has workhouse / poor law records for Westminster.
- London Metropolitan Archives, 40 Northampton Road, London EC1R OHB.
Some records relating to council-run homes, for example inspection reports (though not resident lists etc.), are held by The National Archives (TNA). A closure period may apply to these records.
Bibliography
- Higginbotham, Peter Children's Homes: A History of Institutional Care for Britain's Young (2017, Pen & Sword)
- Urquhart, Gloria (2020) Nobody's Child: The True Story of Growing up in a Yorkshire Children's Home
- Cooke, Allan Institutionalized in a Children's Home: Skellow Hall 1950-1963 — a true story of a child and children in a home (2012, Authorhouse)
- Cummings, Les Forgotten: The Heartrending Story of Life in a Children's Home
- Limbrick, Gudrun The Children of the Homes: a century of Erdington Cottage Homes
Except where indicated, this page () © Peter Higginbotham. Contents may not be reproduced without permission.