St Leonard's Cottage Homes

St Leonard's Cottage Homes, variously called St Leonard's Children's Home or Hornchurch Cottage Home, now private housing, is of interest for its place in social history, demonstrating enlightened attitudes towards the care of orphans and children of destitute families. It was built as a planned self-sufficient 'village' in rural surroundings by the Poor Law Guardians of the Parish of St Leonard in Shoreditch who wanted to re-locate the destitute children of their East End parish to healthier surroundings. This had been an objective as early as 1855, following a critical review of their workhouse in Shoreditch in 1847, and they may have been influenced by Dr Barnardo's Village (q.v.) established in Barkingside in 1870, where 'cottages' were arranged around village 'greens', with church, school and other amenities provided for the children's welfare. The Guardians purchased farmland within then rural Harrow Lodge and the 'village' was designed by F J Smith. It comprised 11 2-story 'cottages' each housing 30 children, with a school, swimming bath, workshops and infirmary, and a lodge for the warden at the north by the main entrance. The 'cottages' were given names that either evoked nature - Hawthorn, Laurel, Woodbine, Rose, Myrtle and Ivy - or commemorated famous people - Nelson, Wellington, Napier, Milton and Landseer. A wide gravelled internal road, named The Mall, ran from north to south though the village, and had a number of purposes, used as a roadway, for marshalling the children and for events. The houses that faced each other across this expanse had front and back gardens, and later grass verges became part of the landscaping. There were vegetable gardens and greenhouses on the west side and an orchard, fruit bushes, flower border and bees in the north east of the site. Tennis courts and a cricket pavilion were also provided.

However, in 1930 the site was closed following changes to the Poor Law, and it was taken over first by the LCC and then by LB Tower Hamlets and survived until 1984. From that time the overall unity of the village began to be diminished, with loss of surrounding land to development and in 1990, with part of the site already re-developed, the original buildings were becoming derelict. Following an appeal lodged by, among others, the Victorian Society and English Heritage, consent was given for a scheme to convert the houses as private residences. The Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England was established in 1984 and was commonly called English Heritage. In April 2015 it split into 2 separate entities, Historic England (HE), which continues to champion and protect the historic environment, and the English Heritage Trust, whose role is to look after the 400+ historic sites and monuments owned by the state. HE manages the National Heritage List for England (NHLE) that includes over 400,000 items ranging from prehistoric monuments to office blocks, battlefields and parks, which benefit from legal protection.

A number of the now derelict ancillary buildings such the swimming pool, workshops and infirmary were demolished and a new road, St Leonard's Way, was constructed as the point of access. The original layout was such that the main entrance was by the lodge on Hornchurch Road, leading to The Mall and a central green; the workshops and swimming pool were formerly to the west. The southern end was originally open, now closed by new housing, but mature trees remain. In the process of conversion to smaller units, the buildings lost some of their distinctive features such as their timber windows, doors and decorative bargeboards, although their bays, porches and chimneys were largely retained. The School Hall and Chapel remain although a statue of a woman with a boy and a girl formerly in the porch niche has since been removed and is now in the V&A Museum of Childhood at Bethnal Green (q.v.). An early C19th sculpture, which has the inscription of its pottery manufacturer, 'Van Spangen and Powell, Mile End', was originally in the parish school in Kingsland Road, Shoreditch. The elaborate lodge and Warden's House also remains. The central green space remains, with a new open space where the former swimming pool and other amenities once stood; while there are some mature trees, the landscape is relatively bland. Garages and parking areas intrude, as does municipal-style street lighting and furniture, tarmaced road surfaces and pathways.