Play Centre, Russell Square 1911

[Ruskie]

So it seems to be generally agreed that a "Play Centre" was somewhere for children to play.

I'm interested to see of Gadget's niece has knowledge of any play centres in the area. 

Perhaps alternative terms may have been used, though apart from "kindergarten" which may have a different function, I couldn't speculate as to other names.

Would it have been necessary to employ a supervisor at Coram's Fields in 1911?  It seems to have been a park like setting. Maybe they were employed by the Foundling Hospital supervising the children there.

[Ruskie]

I can't see any clues on the 1901 census, except that the neigbours on either side of 15 Woburn Place are also lodging houses.

Omitted from the transcription, and running onto the next census page, there are nine more boarders and two servants residing at No.15.

Not that this will help you in any way but just for interest.

[Gadget]

If No 15 is where it is indicated on the Google map (and I query it because it also says No 49!), then it was a garage between, at least,  1960  and recently (many London cabs used it) . It is now the entrance to an underground car park. Above it - and taking up a large block along the south side of Coram Street - is a 1930s built block of mansion flats.
 
I'll report back when I hear from niece 

Gadget

Added - the 'lodging houses' and private hotels were/are rather fine Georgian/Regency terraces, which are characteristic of Bloomsbury.

[JenB]

So it seems to be generally agreed that a "Play Centre" was somewhere for children to play.

I'm interested to see of Gadget's niece has knowledge of any play centres in the area. 

Perhaps alternative terms may have been used, though apart from "kindergarten" which may have a different function, I couldn't speculate as to other names.

If they were indeed working for the Passmore Edwards Settlement (now known as Mary Ward Centre) then 'play centre' was the specific term used.

'Evening Play Centres were inaugurated in the local schools, Manchester Street School and Prospect Terrace Board School, in the poorer Bloomsbury districts to the east of Tavistock Place, including the slum area around Derry Street, between Gray’s Inn Road and Sidmouth Street, where families, many of them Irish, lived in single rooms in multi-occupied tenements'

There is a book about them by Janet Penrose Trevelyan*, 'Evening Play Centres for Children: The Story of their Origin and Growth, 1920' *Mary Ward's daughter

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/bloomsbury-project/institutions/passmore_edwards_settlement.htm

This is all very interesting - you learn something new every day 

[Gadget]

A bit more on the Settlement:

https://web.archive.org/web/20130117083736/http://infed.org/walking/wa-ward.htm

A second, crucial, innovation was the development of a play centre for children. Mary Neal had begun a Saturday 'playroom' for children in Marchmont Hall - and Mary Ward realized that there was considerable potential in the work. With the opening of the new centre, considerable effort was put into developing the work. By 1902 over 1200 children were coming to sessions (the most the building could hold) (Sutherland 1990: 225). The centre provided a place of warmth and safety; the opportunity to help children to develop their play; and the opportunity for comradeship and play in common in a situation where people have an equal chance and where bullying could be contained. (This was how Mary Ward herself described the qualities of a play centre in the prefatory note to her daughter's discussion of the first 25 years of play centre work: Trevelyan 1920). It is a testament to Ward’s ability to lobby and to publicise that there was a major expansion of play centres in London (attendances at playcentres in London totalled 1.7 million in 1918/19).

[JenB]

A couple  more interesting links -
Details of Mary Ward, who pioneered the Play Centre movement in England.
There is a photo here entitled 'Children's Saturday Morning Play Room' http://www.marywardcentre.ac.uk/history/

One one to Google Books with a lot of detail about the Play Centre movement http://www.rootschat.com/links/01iqk/
Apparently by 1914 there were 20 such centres in London.

[Gadget]

Preliminary report back - both orgs ran them and, as the refs already given show, there were a few in the area.  Great nephew is being tasked to go to Camden Local Studies Library to investigate.

It might be worth doing a step through of the Summary Books for the 191. Reg District is 12 (St George and St Giles, Bloomsbury).  I looked at a few EDs and they do give a detailed description of the premises - i.e private dwelling; chemist shop, etc.

However, as there were a few in the vicinity,  unless you could get staff lists, you would not know which one the Hunters worked at.

Gadget

[seemex]

Just wanted to thank everyone for their valuable input on this subject. We keep learning more with each subject and they all seem to lead down new pathways of enlightenment. That's a good thing!
Again Rootschat has come through, with the answers I needed.
Thanks again
Brian B