3-008-450 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Infant Orphan Asylum at Wanstead, 1862. 'Dr. Andrew Reed became aware of the necessity of...[an] institution for infants...the board of the London asylum was...besieged by widows who found their hands so tied by the little children as to render exertion for the rest of the family an utter impossibility...[Dr Reed] addressed a touching appeal to the public, and temporarily took some little ones into his own house. Friends and money soon came to his assistance...the present palatial home was...at first designed to receive orphan children without distinction from the earliest period to the age of seven...[but] is now intended "to board, clothe, and educate in the principles of the Church of England, the boys until they attain fourteen, and the girls fifteen, years of age." The asylum is delightfully situated, about seven miles from London; it is equal to the accommodation of 600 children, and is the largest institution of its kind in England. The educational department comprises four extensive schools, and is under the best superintendence. The asylum was incorporated in 1843; its annual expenditure is above £13,000; and it is possessed of funded property from which is realised about £1300 a year'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.