The Hermitage / Newhaven House, New Southgate, London
In around 1910, the London Female Preventive and Reformatory Institution (LFPRI) opened a training home for "respectable friendless girls in moral peril" at The Hermitage, 272 Colney Hatch Lane, New Southgate, London N11. The home was a successor to a similar establishment which had operated for many years at 195 Hampstead Road, St Pancras. The new premises could accommodate up to 32 girls and young women aged from 15 to 25 years.
The Hermitage, New Southgate, c.1910. © Peter Higginbotham
After the Second World War, The home, now an 'Approved Hostel', was renamed Newhaven House. LFPRI also changed its name to the London Haven for Women and Girls.
The organisation was wound up in 1976, with its remaining assets being passed to the Rainer Foundation which later became part of Catch22.
The former Newhaven House premises are now occupied by a care home.
Records
Note: many repositories impose a closure period of up to 100 years for records identifying individuals. Before travelling a long distance, always check that the records you want to consult will be available.
- Galleries of Justice, Wolfson Study Centre, The Shire Hall, Lace Market, Nottingham NG1 1HN. Holds Rainer Foundation archives which include LFPRI material.
- The
Ancestry UK
website has two collections of London workhouse records (both name searchable):
- The Find My Past website has workhouse / poor law records for Westminster.
- London Metropolitan Archives, 40 Northampton Road, London EC1R OHB. Has some records from 200 Euston Road (1907-47). The LMA catalogue notes "previous papers in parcel now missing".
Bibliography
- Thomas, E.W. Twenty-Five Years' Labour Among the Friendless and Fallen (1897)
- Taylor, W.J. The Story of the Homes (1907)
- Bartley, Paula Prostitution: Prevention and Reform in England, 1860-1914 (2000, Routledge)
- Finnegan, Frances Poverty and Prostitution: A Study of Victorian Prostitutes in York (1979, CUP)
- Hopkins, Jane Ellice, Work Among the Lost (1870, William Macintosh) Nokes, Harriet Twenty-Three Years in a House of Mercy (1886, Rivingtons)
- Taylor, William J The Story of the Homes (1907, London Female Preventive and Reformatory Institution)
- Thomas, E W Twenty-Five Years' Labour Among the Friendless and Fallen (1897, Shaw)
Links
Except where indicated, this page () © Peter Higginbotham. Contents may not be reproduced without permission.
