Description:Alvechurch Road Children's Home was a purpose-built home designed as a ‘family group home’ on the newly-built West Heath housing estate.
The home was part of a programme of new children’s homes, each built on newly developing housing estates, which were to be family group homes – a move away from the larger children’s homes favoured in Victorian England.
These family group homes were designed to be a small ‘family’ unit in a house that looked very much like any other. The first of these homes was completed in 1951, and a further 11 followed, one of which was Alvechurch Road in 1963. A second children’s home was built on the same estate at the same time – on Merrishaw Road.
Both homes accommodated 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.
Both boys and girls lived in the home until it closed in 1986.
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Image: Alvechurch Road Children's Home shortly after it closed in 1986.
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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.