History
It was opened on 18 March 1861 by Louisa Twining, to provide a home for workhouse girls, under the auspices of her Workhouse Visiting Society (The Kalendar of the English Church Union, 1863; Louisa Twining, Recollections of Life and Work: Being the Autobiography of Louisa Twining, 1893)
Twining had been considering opening such a Home for some time, and was assisted in her enterprise when Angela Burdett-Coutts offered to pay the rent of a house for 3 years, and furnish it (Louisa Twining, Recollections of Life and Work: Being the Autobiography of Louisa Twining, 1893)
Suitable premises were found at no. 23 New Ormond Street (now 22 Great Ormond Street), in what had been the Hon. Mrs Kinnaird’s Training Home for Girls, “in every way suitable, with a large school-room across the courtyard” (Louisa Twining, Recollections of Life and Work: Being the Autobiography of Louisa Twining, 1893)
Its Superintendent was Louisa Twining herself and its visitor was Rev. A. W. Thorold, Rector of St Giles
Twining went to stay there in the summer, to superintend it more closely (Louisa Twining, Recollections of Life and Work: Being the Autobiography of Louisa Twining, 1893)
It existed for 17 years and had many success stories, such as Victoria Queen (a foundling picked up on the Queen’s birthday) who came to them from Strand Union, ‘became good’, went to a family in Twickenham, married a carpenter called Albert Edward (!) and was a grandmother by the time Twining wrote her Autobiography (Louisa Twining, Recollections of Life and Work: Being the Autobiography of Louisa Twining, 1893)
The last report of the Home, in 1878, showed its success: a total of 741 girls had been helped, with lots of glowing references, thirty good marriages, and ten girls helped to emigrate, with another three girls becoming Twining’s servants (Louisa Twining, Recollections of Life and Work: Being the Autobiography of Louisa Twining, 1893)
In 1878 the few years left on the Girls’ Home lease were made over to the Association for Befriending Young Servants (Louisa Twining, Recollections of Life and Work: Being the Autobiography of Louisa Twining, 1893)
It no longer exists
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What was reforming about it?
The girls were given practical skills in a home environment; they learned housework, cookery, and laundry alternating with needlework (The Kalendar of the English Church Union, 1863)
They also nursed the patients in the infirm ward opened at the back of the house (which later developed into the Home for Incurables next door), and two girls went on monthly placements to the nursery at Great Ormond Street Hospital (The Kalendar of the English Church Union, 1863)
Training for sick nursing was seen as a good alternative to domestic service, and a progressive development for many girls who would otherwise have ended up in the workhouse (The Kalendar of the English Church Union, 1863)
Where in Bloomsbury
It was at 23 New Ormond Street (now 22 Great Ormond Street) from its opening in March 1861 until it closed 17 years later
Website of current institution
It no longer exists
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Books about it
Louisa Twining, Recollections of Life and Work: Being the Autobiography of Louisa Twining (1893)
Archives
None found
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