Duchess Road Working Boys' Hostel, Ladywood

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Date:1963 - 1978 (c.)

Description:The two houses at 79 and 81 Duchess Road were originally established in 1963 as two working boys’ homes each of which could accommodate four boys. When it opened there was one other home for working boys – Copeley Hill Hostel in Erdington – although several more were to be opened over the next decade.

The purpose of the working boys’ homes was to accommodate older boys who had been in care, in one of the cottage homes or other City-Council run homes, and who had finished their schooling but were not yet 18 and not living independently. They would be supported in finding work and would stay at the working boys' home until they were old enough to leave and set up home on their own.

The two hostels were in two ordinary terraced houses which were, in 1966, knocked through to create one single working boys’ hostel.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, seven new homes for working boys were established and the home at Duchess Road was no longer needed. In 1978, it was closed as a children’s home.


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Image: A promotional shot used by Birmingham's children's Department in 1967. At this stage, the Birmingham Children's Homes project does not have any photographs of this children's home.
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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.