Twenty-Two Cottage Homes At Barnardo'S

These are twenty-two identical cottage homes built as part of Dr Barnardo's Girls Village Home. Two date from 1879, eighteen from 1887, and two from 1903, all designed by the architect Ebenezer Gregg. The listing covers the exterior fabric of all cottages, but includes the interior of Cambridge Cottage, which remains exceptionally well-preserved.

Layout and Setting

Sixteen cottages are arranged in a horseshoe shape around the village green, with the curve at the western end following the line of a former field boundary. A further two cottages stand to the east, near the entrance lodge. These eighteen were all constructed in 1887 to Ebenezer Gregg's designs, with Dr Barnardo himself contributing ideas for the interior decoration. Four additional cottages face south behind the southern stretch of the green: the eastern pair built in 1879 and the western pair in 1903, all following Gregg's Old English style.

Exterior

The two-storey cottages are built of stock brick with rough-cast and half-timbered gables, wood bargeboards, tiled pitched roofs and tall brick chimneys. Each cottage has a central four-panelled door beneath a rubbed brick flat arch, sheltered by a timber porch with a tiled roof. Flanking the door on both sides are five-light canted bay windows, with a three-light window above at first-floor level. All windows are timber sashes. The side and rear elevations are plainer, featuring small half-timbered gables and bargeboards over the upper-storey windows, and rubbed brick flat arches over other windows and doors. The two 1879 cottages have dedication stones set into the bay windows, and these cottages along with the 1903 pair have glazed mustard-coloured terracotta plaques above the doors displaying their names.

Alterations

Four cottages on the north side of the green have been extended at the rear and joined in pairs. Others on the north side have iron fire escape stairs on their side elevations. All cottages on the south side of the green have had new houses built against their rear walls, which has resulted in the demolition of the rear portions of those cottages. However, the roof profile of the new houses matches the original cottages, and both are brick-built. All cottages now have disabled access ramps leading to the front doors.

Interiors

With the exception of Cambridge Cottage, the interiors are not of special interest. On the north side of the green, all inspected cottages have boarded-in staircase balusters and altered stairs at the upper floor landing. Most retain at least some original features—plank panelling, ventilation shafts, cornices or mantelshelves—but nowhere except Cambridge Cottage is the survival consistent or substantial. Several houses have had the two front dormitories knocked through into a single larger room, and even more have had the mother's sitting room opened into the dining room. The seven cottages south of the green and the four behind them have been extended and converted into flats with the original staircases removed. They retain only vestiges of the original plan and no original interior features.

Cambridge Cottage

Cambridge Cottage, while externally identical to the other cottages, has a well-preserved interior restored in 2005. It demonstrates the original standard plan used for all the cottages. Inside the front door, a hall corridor has a patterned tiled floor, plank panelling to dado height, and coat pegs on the walls. To the left of the corridor were the 'Mother's' sitting room and the dining room; to the right, the girls' playroom and a bathroom. The corridor leads to the staircase at the rear of the house, lit by a skylight. Beyond the staircase were the kitchen, scullery, larder and water closets. Upstairs were four dormitories—the rear one with an adjoining linen room—and a bedroom for 'Mother'.

All main rooms originally had skirting boards, plank panelling to dado height, picture rails and fireplaces. Cambridge Cottage retains most of these features, except the fireplaces, though their original positions can be traced by chimney breasts or hearth stones. The doors have been replaced but their heavily moulded architraves survive. Ventilation shafts remain to facilitate air circulation. The Mother's sitting and bedrooms did not originally have plank panelling. A hatch with a door between the Mother's sitting room and dining room presumably allowed supervision of the girls. The kitchen and scullery have corner chimney flues that once contained cast iron ranges, though the corridor running between them has been removed. The timber staircase has turned newel posts, stick balusters and a timber handrail, with the stairwell panelled to dado height.

Historical Context

Thomas John Barnardo (1845-1905) arrived in Barkingside in 1874, having received Mossford Lodge—a large house and grounds—as a wedding present from Sir John Sands. Barnardo had attracted many admirers, particularly from Christian evangelical backgrounds, through his charitable work with destitute children in London's East End. His 1873 marriage and the gift of Mossford Lodge gave him both the moral standing and the means to focus more attention on penniless girls. He and his wife lived in the house and accommodated twelve girls in its stable block. The arrangement proved difficult, partly because the girls were hard to control. In 1876, Barnardo began building a 'Village Home'—a series of cottages arranged around a green, each under the care of a 'Mother', designed to provide a domestic, familial environment for nurturing the girls.

Funds for the first cottage were donated as a memorial to a dead child. In 1876, fourteen cottages were opened by Lord Cairns, then Lord Chancellor, along with a Governor's House and laundry. The cottages resembled a design for labourers' cottages shown at the Great Exhibition in 1851 by Henry Robert. Subsequent homes were built as funds became available, each named by its benefactor. Some are named for institutions (Oxford, Cambridge), others for flowers (Pink Clover), virtues (Peace, Hope), or as memorials (such as Eton Cottage, which bears a plaque reading 'In memory of my son AR').

The village homes concept was not new. The Farningham and Swanley Homes for Boys in Kent was founded on similar principles in 1867, and the Princess Mary Homes in Addlestone, Surrey opened in 1870, both inspired by similar institutions in France and Germany. However, Barnardo's Village Home became the most famous and the largest, and is the only one of these first three English examples where the cottages survive. At Farningham only the lodge and chapel remain, and nothing survives at Addlestone.

The girls lived about twenty to a house and occupied themselves with housework, laundry, needlework and basic school lessons. The intention was that they would find employment as laundresses, dressmakers' assistants, or in domestic service, but the number taken in by the Village Home (1,000 lived there in 1905) and the 'ever open door' policy made this difficult. From the 1880s, Dr Barnardo began sponsoring the emigration of children to Canada. He took a party of boys to Canada in 1882, girls in 1883, and by 1884 had established an 'industrial farm' in Manitoba to provide work for the boys. The policy was controversial: Barnardo was investigated for kidnapping on at least three occasions, having sent children away without parental permission. Many children suffered in their new homes from ill-health, overwork on Canadian farms, and in some cases serious abuse. By 1906, 13,000 boys and 5,000 girls had emigrated, so that in 1901 approximately 0.3 percent of Canada's population had come from a Barnardo's Home.

By Barnardo's death in 1905, there were 64 cottage homes arranged around three greens (built in 1876-80, 1887, and 1903-5). The gardens were landscaped with gravel paths, rose bowers, fountains, specimen trees and benches. Barnardo's ashes were interred in the centre of one of the village greens after an extensive funeral procession from the East End, with thousands paying their respects. His resting place, now on the southern edge of the village, is marked with a memorial by George Frampton RA (1860-1928), erected in 1908. The second half of the 20th century saw the demolition of much earlier building, including all the cottages around the southern green of 1876-80 and the majority around the south-western green of 1903-5, along with the schools, hospital, Governor's House and Mossford Lodge.

Significance

The cottages are listed for their early date as rare surviving purpose-built homes for destitute children from 1879 and 1887. Their Old English style was deliberately chosen to contrast with contemporary barrack-like industrial schools and to appeal to Victorian sentimental notions of domesticity. They represent a physical manifestation of late Victorian philanthropy and ideas about childhood. Dr Barnardo considered the Village Home his principal achievement, and the cottages became symbols of the charity, even appearing as the form of its collecting boxes. Cambridge Cottage is particularly significant for its well-preserved interior, which demonstrates the original plan and features that have been altered or lost in the other cottages. The cottages also have group value as part of an early, well-preserved and extremely rare example of a Victorian cottage home settlement, complete with village green and Children's Church.