Ballantyne, Lushington Road 1967

[roland]

Hello I'm trying to find some information for a friend who was born in 1967.
Her birth Certificate shows the place of birth as Ballantyne, Lushington Road SW6.
Interestingly this was also her mothers place of work.
Her occupation is given as a Children's Nurse

A normal search on the internet is giving me Watergate a special needs school. this is clearly a very modern building.
but going back through old maps I have found a reference to the Waifs and Strays home in 1920 (The Children's Society) was once very close to that location if not the building that was replaced by the new school.

I suspect this is on the very top of the Beckenham borders but with a bit of luck someone will help.

[roland]

Ok I have made some progress.
It seems the home was
the Princess Helena Victoria Nursery Training College
and was indeed owned by the Children's Society until 1962 when London County Council bought it.
www.hiddenlives.org.uk/homes/CATFO01.html

If any one has any information I would be most grateful.

My next step is the London Metropolitan Archives

[nigel]

Hi Roland
apart from street names and addresses another tool I find useful when delving into searching the web is > 'image search'
Tin Eye was the first one I used, it will locate images if they where searched before within their system. this from 2008 >

[nigel]

Google also took up the idea >

best of luck in your quest.

[armoone]

Hi I was also born there in 1968 it was a mother and baby home. some children were given away for adoption others the mothers were there for shelter and support.
Hope this helps.

[christine]

Hi
In 1971 I worked as a shorthand/typist for the Borough of Lewisham at Ballantyne in Lushington Road. This was a temporary agency job which lasted for eighteen months. The building at this time housed the Social Services Department for the southern area of the borough. We knew that it had been a mother and baby home, but didn't know any of the history. The building still had its original layout, with individual rooms on the first floor (I can't remember if there was a second floor), and larger communal rooms on the ground floor. The bedrooms all had working bells in them, to summon help. The social workers and admin staff used the bedrooms as offices, and meetings and admin work took place in the larger rooms. I hadn't known before reading Roland's and Armoone's posts that the building had been used so recently for its original purpose. I remember it as a pleasant building, in its own small grounds, in the centre of the Bellingham inter-war housing estate.