Description:This purpose-built children’s home with eight beds opened in 1953 on the newly built Woodcock Hill Estate.
The home was part of a programme of new children’s homes, each built on Birmingham's newly developing housing estates, which were to be family group homes – a move away from the pre-second world war larger children’s homes. These homes were built on the principle of a being small ‘family’ unit in a house that looked very like any other on the estate. The first of these homes was completed in 1951, and a further 11, one of which was Roundlea Road, were built in the following decade.
The homes were designed to accommodate eight children and were designed so that houseparents (generally a married couple) would live in the children’s home, with, if they had any, their own children.
Roundlea Road was a semi-detached building, sharing a party wall with a private residence.
Both boys and girls were accommodated in the home.
Roundlea Road children's home closed between October 1986 and March 1989.
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Image: Publicity photograph taken for the Children's Committee, Birmingham City Council 1967. The Birmingham Children's Homes project has no photograph of Roundlea Road children's home at this stage.
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Source: This history was compiled by the Birmingham Children's Homes Project, an initiative to explore Birmingham City Council-run children’s homes between 1949 and 1990.