Victoria Working Men's Home, Commercial St East

[Rob Clack]

Here's a Goad Map of the Victoria Homes from May 1890



Rob

[Natalie Severn]

Rob and Richard you are probably right .It is probably a misprint.On the other hand such places as the Victoria Home may well have had "annexes",albeit temporary ones and it may be worth looking into the records.St Jude"s graduates for example didnt only use Toynbee Hall -they appear to have used the Victoria Home too as well as other venues ---so perhaps the Victoria Home extended its premises-then in 1888 and at other times of "overflow".

[Natalie Severn]

Rob,
Thanks for the Goad map information. Do you know of a similarly detailed map to the 1890 one that is for the specific extent as well as layout of the buildings for the Victoria Home in 1888?

[Stephen Thomas]

The Victoria Home didn't have a side entrance on Dorset Street so the writer must have been confused. Interesting to know that it was originally two warehouses. This can be seen from the exterior photo.

[Rob Clack]

Rob,
Thanks for the Goad map information. Do you know of a similarly detailed map to the 1890 one that is for the specific extent as well as layout of the buildings for the Victoria Home in 1888?

I'm afraid I don't. The nearest I have is the Goads.

Rob

[richardnunweek]

Hi,
Clearly the guy at the rear is camera shy, either that or he needs to go to spec-savers .
that picture wasnt taken during that autumn was it... only joking.
Richard,

[Robert]

The "block" of pudding didn't sound too appetising. Great stuff though, Debs!

[Natalie Severn]

Thanks Rob .Yes, Debs a really fascinating find.
Best,
Norma

[Debra A]

Thanks Rob,
I said in my post to Richard I didn't think it sounded right that there was an entrance on Dorset Street, thanks for confirming there wasn't.

Personally I found it interesting that a man would be able to get a night's lodgings free if he had previously spent 6 nights there, so although George Hutchinson might not have had money for lodgings on him when he returned from Romford, it's posible that if he had made it back before closing time he could have had one of these freebies lined up and didn't need any money?

Robert, the pudding block reminds me of the rock hard square stuff we used to get at school that needed a hammer and chisel to get a tiny piece off it, the rest used to fly off your plate maiming half a dozen of your school friends.

Hi Norma Thanks for your thoughts, it would have been exciting to have a Dorset Street entrance to the VH wouldn't it? The place is interesting enough without one though.

[Robert]

Debs, there's a piece of that still lodged in me. The docs say there's no problem as long as it doesn't start to move.

[MrTwibbs]

[QUOTE=Debra A;145705]Thanks Rob,
I said in my post to Richard I didn't think it sounded right that there was an entrance on Dorset Street, thanks for confirming there wasn't.

Personally I found it interesting that a man would be able to get a night's lodgings free if he had previously spent 6 nights there, so although George Hutchinson might not have had money for lodgings on him when he returned from Romford, it's posible that if he had made it back before closing time he could have had one of these freebies lined up and didn't need any money?
QUOTE]

Yes thats an interesting point. I heard somewhere the closing time was midnight and after that ticketless lodgers would not be let in. But if Hutch had a ticket..i.e. pass he would have been allowed to enter. Can someone clarify this or debunk/confirm?

[Sally]

What happened to the Victoria Home?

Hi All.

I have recently come across a report on common lodging houses from 1927 which lists the remaining registered lodging houses in London. The Victoria Home is not amongst them. I know that the building was destroyed in WWII, but does anybody know what happened to it before then?

It's ommission from the list in this report indicates that by this time, it was no longer functioning as a registered lodging house.

Any help would be very welcome.

Best regards

Sally.

[Lechmere]

There are three contemporary accounts of the Victoria Home that I am aware of.

The first can be found in the Daily Telegraph of 22nd September 1888 and consists of mentions of the Victoria Home in two letters to the Editor and a mention in an article.

The second is an article called ‘In Whitechapel’ by Mrs Charles Garnett, which was published in ‘The Sunday Magazine’ in 1889.

The third can be found in a book called ‘Later Leaves’ by Montagu Williams, published in 1892 but almost certainly containing material from an earlier date.

I thought it would be helpful to put all this material in close proximity.

Extracts from Letters to the Editor - The Daily Telegraph - SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1888

The difficulties I have in view are those of the after-management, and on that point no existing investigations supply us with quite the guidance we want. The Radstock Victoria Home is a philanthropic effort which involves the separation of the sexes and the infusion of a religious influence. The Rothschild company is for a superior class of lodgers to the lowest, and is not intended, so far as I can make out, for the wandering outcasts who might manage to pay their 4d, 6d, or 1s a night for shelter and a bed, but who could not afford to take a room for a week, and who would also certainly be repelled by any attempts at inquisitorial supervision or well-meant lectures on the error of their ways. Both of these undertakings may pay, while others, looking for support to a different class of inmates, might not. The main question, it appears to me, to be decided is the nature and extent of the restrictions to be enforced - on that will depend the measure of success. With all their dirt, noisome associations, and relatively high charges the low lodging-houses which it is sought to clear out of the way suit those who frequent them, because they impose no check whatever and ask no questions beyond the night's rent. Any man or woman, together or separate, may "claim kindred there, and have their claims allowed" if they can pay their footing. As they come, so they go, unvexed by supervision of any kind. They may be virtuous poor, or roving beggars, or criminals laden with "swag" and preparing for another "plant." To multitudes in such a city as London these houses are a convenience and a necessity. But the improved low lodging-house which is to supplant them must be better than these, and in order to do any good its conductors must begin with restrictions. It must be something else than a brothel; some check would have to be put on the indiscriminate intercourse of the sexes; cleanliness would need to be enforced; and the desperate criminal be excluded, if possible, altogether.
A PRACTICAL PHILANTHROPIST

For the pauperised, shiftless, and outcast population of London nothing has been done. They have been left to sink lower and lower in the scale of civilisation, to wander from common lodging-house to lodging-house, to live low and vicious lives, surrounded by whitewashed wretchedness. Whitewash often conceals dirt. Hearthstoning is not a cleansing process. Neither whitewash nor hearthstoning render the rotting tenements, huddled together in close courts, and denied air and sunshine, fit habitations for men and women, albeit the police and the district surveyor are satisfied with the cubic measurement of the houses.
If there had been a way of solving this problem surely it would have been done. There has been at least one attempt to do it. It was in 1850 that the Metropolitan Association, whose secretary, Mr. Charles Gatliff, was the pioneer in the work of the better housing of the poor, put up in Spitalfields a building of four floors, providing 234 separate sleeping compartments, 8 ft by 4 ft 6 in, each with a locker and half a window. The tenants received were single men, and they paid 3s a week, which charge included the use of a coffee-room 45 ft by 35 ft, kitchen 46 ft by 21 ft 9 in, lecture room 35 ft by 21 ft 9 in, and reading room 25 ft by 21 ft 9 in. There were also a cook's-shop and bar, with baths and lavatories. The total cost was a little over £13,000, but after eighteen years' trial the whole place was converted into dwellings for families, the single men never having fully occupied the beds. In fact, the average annual return did not exceed 1 per cent. upon the outlay. It appears that the cause of failure was the surveillance which was exercised, and which, at that time, labouring men resented. In many respects the attractions offered to them resembled those of the Victoria Home, now flourishing in Commercial-street, where quite as much supervision is enforced. Too much importance must, therefore, not be attached to the want of success which was experienced twenty years ago, for since then the habitual frequenters of the common lodging-houses have grown accustomed to having their privacy intruded upon by unexpected visits of the police, and the rules which the deputy has to see observed are somewhat stringent.
AN INQUIRER.

Extract from an article - The Daily Telegraph - SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1888

It was with a view to ameliorate the condition of the poor that Lord Radstock and other gentlemen, with a purely philanthropic motive, acquired two years since a warehouse of four floors in Commercial-street, at the corner of Wentworth-street, and converted it into a model lodging-house. The success of the venture led to the acquisition of the adjoining premises, and the number of beds now provided is 500. In every respect this lodging-house - the only one of its sort in London - deserves to be imitated. First, its charges are low - viz., 4d for a single bed, or 2s per week; and 6d for a "cabin," or 3s per week. Each bed has two blankets, two sheets, and a quilt; the bedstead is of iron, and a kind of shield at the head affords a certain degree of privacy. The floor space is partitioned into rooms, containing each ten or a dozen beds; whilst in the "cabins" there is only one. A "casual" ward for the reception of newcomers has lately been added, and probationers are transferred thence to floors above. Many of the lodgers are regulars, but some are birds of passage purely. The lavatory, ventilating, and sanitary arrangements are on an enlightened scale. In the common kitchen food may be cooked at the great fire, or obtained at low charges at the bar, a dinner with vegetables for fourpence, or a bowl of soup for a penny. No known bad characters are admitted. Tickets for beds are issued from five p.m. until 12.30 midnight, and after that hour if a man wants to get in he must have a pass. It is by these rules, especially, and by the exclusion of women, that the Victoria Home is so greatly to be preferred to the most modern and "improved" of the lodging-houses which are strictly commercial undertakings."

From ‘Later Leaves’ by Montagu Williams 1892.
VICTORIA HOUSE.

Of course there are one or two lodging-houses- to which the description I have given does not apply. A conspicuous example is Victoria House, situated at the corner of Commercial Street and Wentworth Street. Here special measures are taken to exclude notoriously bad characters.
The premises were originally two warehouses. A number of gentlemen acquired them at a considerable cost, and adapted them to their present purpose, being satisfied with a very moderate return on their outlay.
The rules of Victoria House, of which printed copies are hung up in the kitchen, are as follows:
"(1) No person in a state of intoxication will on any account be admitted.
"(2) No swearing or obscene language will be tolerated. Order and decorum are insisted on in the kitchen; silence in the bedrooms.
"(3) No person will be admitted after one o'clock a.m. without a special pass.
"(4) Any lodger interfering with the comfort of others is at once ejected.
"(5) Lodgers who are fortunate enough to possess extra clothing or other personal effects, can leave them in charge of the deputy, who will give a receipt for the same.
"(6) Baths, warm or cold, can be had in the house. For a warm bath, a charge of one penny is made."
In Victoria House, every facility is given to the lodgers to keep their underclothing clean — in fact, it is insisted that they shall do so.
In the building, there is, open to all, a large, cosy reading- room, which is supplied with the daily papers and other journals. Adjoining the house is a lecture hall, containing chairs, a raised platform, and a small organ. This is used for temperance meetings, and lectures on domestic and other subjects.
As I have said, measures are taken to exclude bad characters from Victoria House. I very much question, however, if such persons would care to stay there. The place is too pure to suit them.
It is a pity there are not more establishments like Victoria House, for, of course, there are many persons — hawkers, men in search of work, the victims of landlords, etc. — who are forced to go to the common lodging-house. They have, at least, to choose between the lodging-house, the streets, the workhouse, and the prison. Many a respectable fellow has occasionally to find temporary quarters for himself and family, and there should certainly be places where they could be decent and comfortable, and where the children would not be constrained to listen to filthy and demoralising conversation.

[Lechmere]

First two pages of 'In Whitechapel'

[Lechmere]

Second two pages of 'In Whitechapel'