Stockwell Orphanage

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 89571

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "a_reader2003" 
<carolynwhite2 at a...> wrote:

Carolyn:
> So ! The investigation continues ! However, I think that at some 
> point we have to ask ourselves whether JKR did any of the digging 
> that we have, and if so, to what purpose.. is there a clue there 
for 
> us to find or not ?
> 
> Did she deliberately find a road that used to be called something 
> else just to conclusively link Tom Riddle to the Stockwell 
orphanage 
> or not ?
> 
> And if he was at the orphanage, we still don't have any idea why, 
> when it really seems to be an awful long way from Little Hangleton.
> 
> Methinks, since it was an important Baptist orphanage, you should 
set 
> up a sneaky church research project, Geoff, and get lots of your 
> fellow brethren engaged in looking through dusty files from the 
1920s 
> and 1930s, to see if there was some surprising project to bring 
> children from all over the UK to London at that time. An 
> international research project, tell them, with interested 
supporters 
> all over the world <g>.  Well.. we have to find out somehow .. and 
> they might enjoy it !

Geoff (in 89499):
Digressing for a moment to Carolyn's comments in 89406, I hope to try
to obtain a little bit more information on the question of the
orphanage over the weekend. One of our church members was on the
staff at Spurgeon's College for many years and has already helped me
with one or two points, so I shall do some more arm-twisting!

Watch out, Tom, we're on your tail again.

:-)

Geoff again:
By coincidence, I met the church member I wanted to see town this 
morning and was able to raise th matter with her.

As a result of my reading of the situation is this. I have explained 
in a previous post some weeks ago that Chalres Haddon Spurgeon was 
one of the greatest Baptist ministers in our history - certainly for 
his time. His name still lives on in the name of his church at the 
Elephant & Castle - Spurgeon's Tabernacle. He felt a call from God to 
address the needs of orphans and the Stockwell Orphanage was opened 
in 1869 to cater for 250 boys - the girls' accommodation following in 
1879. 

Obviously,Spurgeon's first concern was for the children of the London 
area. If you track down the 1881 census figures,as Shaun and I did 
independently,  most of the scholars listed are from the London area. 
Remember that, prior to the formation of the London County Council, 
many areas which are now part of Greater London would be listed under 
their old counties of Middlesex, Surrey, Kent, Essex and possibly 
Hertfordshire which had their boundaries pushed out, first by the LCC 
by its formation in 1887 and further by the formation of the Greater 
London council in 1965.

However, there are a number of pupils in ths list who come from towns 
and villages far outside the London area. Why? My enquiries of my 
contact elicited the fact that there was only one Orphanage set up by 
the Baptist church; it still exists today as part of the Spurgeon's 
Child Care group.

So, it would be quite likely that a Baptist family with an orphan on 
their hands would eschew a secular institution - with the reputation 
that some of them had obtained via Charles Dickens for example - and 
might go for their denominational Orphanage in London. Possibly 
therefore, Tom Riddle Senior was a Baptist (though his behaviour 
suggests that he was a bad one!) and so TR Junior finished up there. 
However, a second possbility is that, having been abandoned, Tom's 
mothe went to relatives who organised her while she approached her 
labour - in a hospital either locally or in London and that Tom went 
to Stockwell after his mothers' death.

Plenty to chew on over this!