Children's Homes

Children's Homes

In the 1890s, The Salvation Army established Nursery Homes for accommodating mothers with their babies, and in 1898, a Babies' Home was opened at 26 Shore Road, Hackney, to care for babies whose mothers were in service. The Babies' Home also began to accommodate children whose parents had died or were unable to care for them.

In 1901, The Salvation Army opened The Nest at 10 Springfield in Upper Clapton. It was officially opened by Florence Booth, the wife of William and Catherine Booth's son Bramwell and leader of The Salvation Army's Women's Social Work. Initially The Nest was a Home for Mothers with Young Children, but by 1906 it had become a Children's Home only. By 1908 it was a Girls' Home providing accommodation for 70 girls who received schooling and were trained for domestic service.

In 1908 The Salvation Army acquired a second site in Ramsgate to provide extra space for The Nest; known as The Nest II and The Nest Ramsgate Branch, it was initially used as a seaside holiday home. By 1912 this work was moved to a new premises in Ramsgate which became The Haven, a Home for Little Girls and 'sister' of The Nest.

The Nest closed in 4 November 1934 and the resident children were moved to other homes, first in Westgate on Sea and then in Southend-on-Sea.

From the 1940s until the 1990s The Salvation Army ran around 20 Approved Schools or Probation Homes which were often an alternative to custodial sentences, although some children were sent to the homes by local authorities or their families. These included Avalon in Chislehurst which closed in 1981 and House o' the Trees at Pen-y-Graig in Wales between 1932-1989.

Two children's homes opened in the north-west of England: Strawberry Field in Liverpool in 1936 and Marshfield in Southport in 1940. They both closed in the early 2000s. The Haven had moved to Sydenham in south London and this closed in 2012.