London Orphan Asylum

Their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales have signified their intention of laying the foundation stone of the proposed new asylum at Watford on Monday, the 12th inst.

The Annual Report of this valuable institution for the past year has been published. In their appeal to the public, the managers notice the fact of their having contracted for the erection of the new building at Watford, from Mr. H. Dawson's design, for 450 orphans, for £63,088.

The Grocers' Company have, in a spirit worthy of their ancient liberality, voluntarily bestowed the sum of £3,000 for building a house for the reception of fifty orphans, to be designated The Gift of the Grocers' Company - Eight such houses are designed for the accommodation of 400 boys, and the Board are not without hope that some other public body or individual may generously emulate the noble example of the Worshipful Company of Grocers. The contract price for erecting the structure, of which we give illustrations, is rather under £3,000.

Another gift has afforded the managers great satisfaction, and we do not wonder. Four years ago the Head Mistress, much esteemed, married the late Mr. George Peckett, who had done good service to the institution. Having lately lost her husband, Mrs. Peckett has announced her intention of building the chapel (of which we give a view) at her own cost (about £5,000) to serve at once as a memorial of him, and of her own regard for an institution with which she was long connected, an occurrence as honourable to the managers as it is to the lady.

Donations to the building fund, and for the annual subscriptions, are pressingly called for. Some statistical tables appended to the report show how considerable a difference on the whole expenditure is sometimes made by a small increase of cost on each individual for provisions, etc Thus in 1863, the cost per head of each orphan was £10-1s-1d and the cost for the entire establishment was hence £4,343-19s-7d; while in 1868 the cost of each child was £12-1s-5.5d, and a total cost was hence increased to £5,239-1s-3d. The average number of children in 1863 was 432, in 1868 it was 434.

The objects of this institution are most admirable, and we fully endorse words lately uttered by the Rev. J.W.Gleadall while pleading the cause of the asylum. - "This Institution is distinguished from a great many of the other establishments of benevolence, which, like gems in a monarchs diadem, adorn and dignify our land. Whilst others direct their attention to mitigate the different evils that result from poverty, disease, old age, and accident, thus furnishing a refuge for the broken remains of human life, this, on the other hand, contemplates its objects in the first years of their existence. It takes them from the position of danger in which, by no act of their own -by no vice or folly of their own - they have been placed. It rescues them from the associations and from influences which might make utter shipwreck of their hopes and their happiness. It saves them from such a fate, and, with all the anxiety of a parent, guards their early years and trains them to religion, to virtue and to usefulness."

Source:
The Builder 1869 Vol XXVII pp545, 10th July 1869
Submitted by Alan Longbottom.