Description:In the late 1960s and early 1970s, many new children's homes were opened in Birmingham and several of these were intended to be homes for working children.
Some of these were purpose built – like Allenscroft Road which opened as an 8 bed unit in 1970. It was built in very much the same style as the other new hostels for working children built at that time - Villa Walk, Acorn Grove, Highters Heath Lane, and Frankfort Street.
Like all the other purpose-built hostels, Allenscroft was single sex (boys in this case) and could accommodate 8 young people.
As a hostel for working children, Allenscroft was for young people who had left school but who were still in care. As such, they were generally aged between 16 and 18.
Allenscroft was not used as a hostel for working boys for long, closing in February 1979.
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Image: A flyer produced in the late 1970s by the 'Birmingham Children's Defence Committee' protesting at planned closures of working children's homes. The closures went ahead.
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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.