Hope Place, was opened by Thomas Barnardo in 1867 with other medical students he acquires what is said was an old donkey stable in Hope Place, at a cost of 8 shillings per week for the downstairs and a further 4 shillings per week for the upper floor.

The property was in fact a converted Victorian warehouse that had been used as a costermongers donkey stable by the previous tenant. This was his first ragged school recorded as Hope Place, Limehouse E14. The school soon became overcrowded so Thomas Barnardo obtained a  warehouses by the Regent's canal in London's Mile End. It became one of the largest of the ragged schools in London where poor children could get a basic education from 1877 to 1908 This was not a home where children slept, but as it is the first I have included Hope Place. It is now a museum about the East End and the lives of its children.

After some thirty years of the opening of Hope Place Thomas Barnardo wrote:

'there were two or three students of my year who, if not decidedly Christian men, were sufficiently interested to co-operate with me, and share to some degree in my labours. All this, it must be remembered, was before the days of the School Board. The schoolmaster was not yet abroad. It was much more frequent then than it is now to meet great fellows of fifteen or seventeen years of age who did not even know their A B C, and who had never had any kind of schooling, although of decent and respectable parentage.

 After we had thus agreed, then, that a school was needed, we actually went a step farther, and decided to open one. We could not find any building that would suit our purpose or our very small means, but there was an old dilapidated shed to let, which had been used not long before as a stable for costermongers' donkeys, there being a street market not far off. After some debate we rented this shed. It cost us 8s. 6d. per week. This sum was contributed from our joint funds. When we obtained possession we found that there was no flooring. Rough cobblestones and earth would hardly do! So we had to look about for a carpenter, and found a journeyman who undertook the job of putting a rough flooring down. I forget what it cost us. I think it came to something like two or three pounds; but I know that that bill made a considerable hole in our very limited resources.

'None of us had much money to spare. When, after the flooring was done, other repairs were needed, we decided that we could not afford to hire labour, and we must do them ourselves. And we did. We set to work right manfully. The rafters were cleaned and whitewashed, and the walls were lime-whited. We bought a couple of lamps second-hand, and these we hung with wire from the rafters, and they shed sometimes a spluttering radiance on the audience beneath. Then we had to get seats and books of some sort. Altogether our resources were deeply involved by the great expense of the new undertaking.

'Well, into this old, disused, and transmogrified donkey-shed, as soon as it was ready, we gathered a crowd of idle, ill-washed children, on two nights a week and on Sundays, arranging the week-nights so that two of us should be on duty at a time, while on Sundays we all were there. A crowd of unkempt youngsters filled the place as soon as the doors were open; and there it was that I had my first indication of and inspiration towards what proved to be my life's work.'

I noted another story about Hope Place from another source: Their historic meeting is on record; according to "The History of the Salvation Army: Volume One"

Two young men one a medical student with hopes of becoming a missionary to China, and the other a former pawnbroker's assistant turned evan­gelist met in the heart of London's East End over a hundred years ago. Both were to eventually to leave their mark upon history, but at that time neither had any intentions of doing so.

The two young men were our own Dr. Barnardo, and William Booth who, in later life, became the founder of The Salvation Army (in its earlier days called "The Christian Mission")

Dr. Barnardo and William Booth met at the gaff (a disreputable theatre in Limehouse converted into a place of worship). Seeing The Christian Mission' operating at the street corners, Mr. Barnardo he was then a student at the London Hospital  threw himself heartily into the work and helped the mis­sioners, assisting also at the indoor meetings. One evening he told William Booth of his intention to do something for homeless boys, and that he had taken a house to begin in. Where is it?' asked William Booth. 'Hope Place, Bull Lane, Stepney,' was the reply. 'What is the rent?' 'Eight shillings for the downstairs, and we shall get the upstairs, which is another four shillings.' They shook hands and parted with mutual expressions of  thanks, and wishes for each other's success.