Irwin Avenue Children's Home, Rednal

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Date:1952 - 1981 (c.)

Description:Irwin Avenue children's home was built as what was known as a 'family group home' in 1952 on the Rednal housing estate.

The home at 50 Irwin Avenue was part of a programme of new children’s homes, each built on Birmingham's newly developing housing estates, which were to be small family homes or scattered homes – a move away the larger children's homes favoured in earlier years.

These homes were designed to be a small ‘family’ unit in a house that looked much like any other on the estate. The first of these homes was completed in 1951, and a further 11, one of which was Irwin Avenue, were built in the following decade.

The houseparents, generally a married couple, would live in the home with, if they had any, their own children. Usually the housefather had a full-time job outside the home while the housemother worked full-time within the home.

Irwin Avenue had beds for up to eight children. The home was listed as closed in 1981 and the building has since (pre 2010) been demolished.

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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 Irwin Avenue 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.