3-028-689 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

New school-room, Boys' Home, Regent's Park-Road, 1870. Institution established '...to receive destitute children in danger of falling into a criminal life, and to train them to honest industry...[and prevent them] from becoming a burden to their country as beggars or thieves, and have been or are now being converted into industrious, honest working men...During the first seven years no destitute applicant was ever refused admittance. Several boys thus received were found to be neither homeless nor destitute, and they were restored to their proper homes...The boys are taught habits of order, cleanliness, and industry. They are employed in chopping firewood, in domestic work, and in mending their clothes, and such as are old enough are put to work to tailoring, shoemaking, brushmaking, carpentry, general farm work, and gardening...The former pupils are now serving in the Army, the Royal Navy, and the Merchant Marine, or in domestic service...the boys...receive a sound practical education...The average net cost of maintenance for each boy is £15 1s. 2d., which shows the economy of the management, as the average net cost in the reformatories of Great Britain is £18 19s. 13d., and that of London pauper children never less than £24 10s'. From "Illustrated London News, 1870.