Portraits Of Working Lads Of Whitechapel
These portraits were taken around 1900 at the Working Lads Institute, known today as the Whitechapel Mission. Founded in 1876, the Institute offered a home to young men who had been involved in petty criminal activity, rehabilitating them through working at the Mission which tended to the poor and needy in Whitechapel. Once a lad had proved himself, he was able to seek independent employment with the support and recommendation of the Institute.
The Working Lads Institute was the first of its kind in London to admit black people and Rev Thomas Jackson, the founder, is pictured here with five soldiers at the time of World War I
Stained glass window with a figure embodying ‘Industry’ as an inspiration to the lads
In the dormitory
Rev Thomas Jackson & the lads collect for the Red Cross outside the Mission
Click here to learn more about The Whitechapel Mission
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Excellent gallery this, thanks!
Interesting article, thankyou (… surely No.10
lad is Mick Jagger in a former life ….)
Each time I study these portraits, I’m dismayed by the condition of some of the lads’ footwear. A coat with arms too long, or trousers with legs too short, could not have been in the same UNIVERSE of discomfort as such ill-fitting, blown-out boots. I doubt some of the lads even had the benefit of a pair of stockings. My own feet smart in too-late sympathy. Bless the Reverend Jackson for his Mission.
Greetings. A fascinating and evocative series of portraits. Are they in the archives of The Whitechapel Mission? If they are do we know who took them and what the accession numbers are?
Thanks for all your dedication to preserving and documenting the complex and always intriguing histories of London.
Fascinating. I wonder how they fared in life, their life stories would no doubt be interesting. Thank you.
Greetings from Boston,
GA, what an interesting gallery of young men being given the chance for a step up in life by the Whitechapel Mission. I am sure that a warm bed and the support of the Institute was really appreciated by those in need. Let’s hope that at least most succeeded.
What moving photographs.
That white sheet backdrop in the hallway is about the cleanest thing to be found, other than the snow on the rooftop.
Such dignity as they stand in probably all they own, ill-fitting, stretched-out woolen suits that never had a pressing, only harsh water washings, if that.
Even with the layers of clothing, some of these lads are thin. Some cheeks are hollow.
Those who went on to enlist in the First World War, if they survived, would later say the army years were the first time they had their own clothes, their own bed, and three meals a day.
My father, born two months before the Great War ended, said that after he served in the Second World War.
Really splendid portraits, with depth of life evident in so many of the faces!
Thank you for the photos. They are a stark reminder that any of us can go through hard times in life yet the story remains forever untold.
Some of the saddest photos I have ever seen. Young men that look like old men, obvious extreme poverty, hopelessness in some of their eyes. Thank God for the work of this mission. I hope some of them had some happiness in their lives.
So many faces of poverty. The lad with the checked scarf looks especially young, but was probably 14 or 15 – the result of a lifetime of limited, poor quality food.
What Amazing Vintage Pictures of these People. Thank You So Very Much!!???????
Are there any names on the photos. These lads were of my granddad’s generation. He was born in Spitalfields in 1882.
For the ones who survived the war, the training would have provided them with a good chance to earn a living and bring up families of their own, maybe to immigrate to a better life.