Children at play

I found this photograph within the archive this week.

At play at the Central Refuge

It shows some of the boys at play in the Central Refuge yard. The Charity has very few pictures of the building which stood on Francis Street between 1871 and 1920. It could be considered unusual that the main hub of the Charity for its first 50 years had so few photographs taken of it. In fact the images that remain are mostly drawings of the home as displayed below.

Workshops in the Central Refuge

 

The photograph does give an insight into the home however. The Central Refuge was the only building owned by the Charity that fell in line with the traditional image of a nineteenth century orphanage with the boys wearing the same 'uniform' in the photograph. The building at its largest could hold 700 boys, which could give it an institutionalised feel. This home however was used for the older boys and was treated more as a safe lodging from which to go to work than an orphanage. The smaller houses were for younger children who were seen to benefit more from a family-style feel.

Every photograph tells a story.