Description:Like many Victorian civic buildings Mason’s Orphanage was monumental in scale, the building dwarfing its inmates. A digital enhancement of the photograph enables an adult figure to be seen in an open window.
Sir Josiah Mason founded a small orphanage in Erdington, which opened in 1858 to provide support for orphan girls. In 1860 he built a new, larger institution in Bell Lane (later Orphanage Road), Erdington. It continued to operate until 1960 by which date the building was uneconomical and the state had taken over much of the provision of residential childcare.