Children’s homes provide care for children who are unable to live with their own family. The first children’s homes in London were established by philanthropists, charitable or religious institutions. They focused on providing lodgings and education for poor and orphaned children. In our collection we have pictures of Christ’s Hospital which opened in 1552 in the City of London, and The Foundling Hospital which opened in 1741.

By 1839, children made up half of the workhouse population. From the late nineteenth-century, cottage homes, where children lived in small family size homes and were looked after by house-parents, were built by the state and charitable institutions. Often located in the countryside of Greater London they functioned like self-contained villages and had amenities, such as schools, shops, swimming pools, gymnasiums and chapels within their extensive grounds.

Most of the children’s homes images in this collection are establishments that were run by the London County Council (L.C.C.). between 1930 and 1965. When school-aged children first came into the care of the L.C.C. they would be placed in a Reception into Care Home, such as Wood Vale, which provided short stay accommodation while longer-term plans could be made. Babies and infants would be placed in residential nurseries, which also provided a nursery school, such as Ladywell Residential Nursery. There were also several boarding schools, such as Shirley Residential School (also known as Shirley Oaks) and Ashford Residential School.

By the late twentieth-century the emphasis has been on placing children with foster carers. The London Picture Archive provides a unique insight into historic child care institutions throughout Greater London.