Comments on: Henrietta Barnett & The Workhouse Children

By: Alexandra Rook

Alexandra Rook — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 01:18:33 +0000

I have the great privilege of living in Waterlow Court built 1909, another prescient part of HB’s vision for a socially inclusive, healthy place to live, designed specifically for single professional women who were then seeking emancipation in the post-Victorian era, living independently, earning their own living. It is a collegiate building which was then well staffed with communal dining room in which they had to spend 6/- a week. The women entertained themselves & others with theatrical & musical performances. Every summer they hosted a charabanc of East End children to a picnic & games in the extensive grounds. We still have the original croquet set, altho’ our lawns are less well tended now to make much use of it sadly.

By: Heather Rohrer

Heather Rohrer — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 15:32:22 +0000

I too attended Henrietta Barnett Junior School in Hampstead Garden Suburb, from 1948 to 1951.
I never knew of the amazing attributes of our founder and never thought to ask my mother why
she sent me there. It dawns on me, all these years later, that her reason may have stemmed from the fact that she herself was raised in Stepney, in the East End and must have known the poverty –
first hand, being one of eight children whose father was a chimney-sweep.

By: Venetia

Venetia — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 17:37:15 +0000

I agree with Judi. Perhaps laws making poverty a crime are the reason for such appalling cruelty seen not only in ‘homes’ such as these but also in schools and hospitals right through into the 1950s and 1960s. I cannot imagine that children would ever have been treated so cruelly in countries like Italy or Spain.

By: Judi Barrett

Judi Barrett — Mon, 11 Oct 2021 09:47:19 +0000

A fascinating article. I went to Henrietta Barnett School in Hampstead Garden Suburb and so knew something of her reforming achievements but her work to improve the lives of these poor children in the East End is on another level.

It was under Elizabeth I (yes, “Good Queen Bess”!) that poverty was in many ways made a crime and it is dreadful that this attitude persisted for so long. There are still traces of it today in the way people are treated.

By: Ronit Zwebner

Ronit Zwebner — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 11:34:04 +0000

As a graduate of Henrietta Barnett School I am so proud to have been part of the school & have even more respect for our founder. Thank you for enlightening us. I will always remember her portrait in the school hall where her eyes followed us wherever we were seated.

By: Cathryn Brooks

Cathryn Brooks — Wed, 06 Oct 2021 14:06:33 +0000

A pupil at Henrietta Barnett School and daughter of Peter Barraclough, the minister of the Free Church, Central Square, NW11, I grew up within the sight of the school founded in Henrietta’s name. My parents continued her work both in education, social housing and other philanthropic activities. She was at the fore front of women’s emancipation and led by example. Proud to have been a pupil.

By: Marcia Howard

Marcia Howard — Fri, 24 Sep 2021 15:46:20 +0000

Such inhumane treatment. It makes my heart bleed reading such reports and stories as this. Thank heavens for the Henrietta’s of this world, and those who followed in her footsteps

By: Cherub

Cherub — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 16:57:43 +0000

The children on the photos look like concentration camp victims. You can keep Victorian values in the past as far as I’m concerned. I read Charles Booth’s London in the early 90s and whilst it was fascinating it was also deeply disturbing in parts.

By: Micky Watkins

Micky Watkins — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 15:19:01 +0000

I have written a biography :-
‘Henrietta Barnett, Social Worker and Community Planner’ by Micky Watkins.
Obtainable for £10 from
Micky Watkins,
Hampstead Garden Suburb Archives Trust,
862 Finchley Rd.,
NW11 6AB

I am certainly going to buy John Walker’s book which is evidently very well researched.

Henrietta had immense energy and was the creator of Hampstead Garden Suburb, the very antithesis of life in the East End, a place where children could be happy

By: Claire D

Claire D — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 09:18:42 +0000

Henrietta was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1917 and a Dame of the same order in 1924. Those are significant honours of recognition.