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The Village Home, Barkingside that exists today. What was it like in the early days and through the years till it closed in 1986 as a home for children. The last person in care left in 1992 with the closing of New Mossford. These pages will also tell you about the founder Dr Thomas John Barnardo as I don't think it would be possible to give information on The Village without some information on Thomas Barnardo. While this web site will not tell you everything about this old home or Dr. Barnardo I have tried to add as much information that has been gleaned from Barnardo magazines and other publications. All information and photographs held within this web site are © copyright  and should not be copied or shared without express permission.

On the 21st November of 1866 a boy called Jim Jarvis came to be Thomas Barnardo's first resident and became one of the reasons Thomas did not go to China and started him on his life's work with children. The London that Jim Jarvis and boys like him lived was far worse than the writings of Charles Dickens. The first Barnardo home which was for boys only did not opened until December of 1870 some four years later with 18 Stepney Causeway E.1.

In 1871 five beds had become available at the Stepney home that could sleep a total of 60 boys which slept in five dormitories, one boy could not be admitted and had later died. This brought about the 'Ever Open Door' at number ten Stepney Causeway in 1874 for the true story as told by Thomas Barnardo some ten years later. click here to read >>>>>>

While there were places for boys, girls could not officially be admitted. It was after speaking to a girl called Martha in the winter of 1872. Martha was eleven years of age and fending for herself, she and others like her had no place they called home. Thomas realised that he had been totally wrong about the treatment of homeless girls. True, there were fewer girls roaming the streets, but their destitution often took a darker form than that of the boys. Thomas Barnardo decided that something must be done for these girls even though he had been refused in 1871 by the charity commission to open a girls home due to Victorian standards, that he did not have a wife!

The Girls Village Home, Barkingside was built by private donations. Thomas Barnardo was always at the forefront of new ideas, his plan for The Village Home was that it be built as a Garden City so that each cottage had its own garden, front and back, this pre-dates The Letchworth Garden City of  1903, had Thomas read Ebenezer Howard's book "To-morrow: a peaceful path to real reform"? If he did it was many years later as this book was not published until 1898. One of the chief features of the village is the new purpose built steam laundry, that did all the washing from all the branch homes.

The girls that were received at Barkingside ranged from infancy onwards and most of them remained until they reached the age of seventeen. Over the years from 1876 till 1939 thousands of girls would pass through the Village Home, Barkingside portal for training as domestic service maids, cooks etc in such a thorough fashion that there was always a great demand for Dr Barnardo's well trained girls.

The map below is Dr. Barnardo's proposed plan for the girls village home that had come to him as a vision, the map is dated about 1880. Now if I have my bearings right, it shows the steam laundry bottom left that was opened in 1876. The road that leads to the laundry was called Ashurst Lane. Tanners Lane at the opposite end is just that leading to Cranbrook Road. What looks like a church halfway up on the left was never built in this location, if you look at the cottage just past the church, this would have been May Cottage which which was completed in 1880. One cottage back would stand Myrtle which was the first recorded cottage to have it's stone laid and was opened with others on 9th July1876. Most of these cottages on this green could hold up to 20 girls. If you then look at the greens, to the left of the last green Cairns House stands today which was at one time the centre of the Village home. Cairns house was built in memory of Dr. Barnardo's first President and good friend The Earl of Cairns.

The road to the right is Horn Road, the eight cottages you can see on the right from the bottom, became the reception cottages In the early 50s when it moved from Woodford Bridge. If you count the cottages on the right there are fourteen, then there was one more house named The Lodge, then the main gate that had access for vehicles and people on foot. Far left you can see open fields that was to become the Village green we know today that holds sixteen cottages. On this green can be found the cottages Ivy and Oxford that In 1997 became the After Care Unit after a major refurbishment. The cottages were built in 1887 and were used to house children until about 1986. Ivy and Oxford cottages housed approximately 12 girls each plus house parents.

Please note if I get any further information this could all change,,,,,,  I have been asked if I had any maps showing where the cottages were. So after many hours slaving over a map of the Village Barkingside with all the cottages listed Click here >>>>>>

All information and photographs held within this web site are © copyright  and should not be copied or shared without express permission.

Trademarked names appear on this Barkingside website. All use of such names is for editorial purposes only and solely to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringing upon that trademark. The entire contents of this website are Copyright 2001 - 2008 Goldonian Web, All Rights Reserved, unless otherwise noted. Access to this site does not grant any rights to copy, publish, sell, license, distribute or use any included materials, including photographs, text, backgrounds or design elements in any form or media, without the expressed and written permission of the individual copyright holders. Editorial opinions expressed are solely those of the respective authors. Goldonian web does not in any way speak for Barnardo's. Its purpose is purely for research and historical interest of Barkingside The Village Home.