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Whitechapel Lads

July 20, 2022
by the gentle author

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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

You may also like to take a look at

Colin O’Brien at the Whitechapel Mission

2 Responses leave one →
  1. July 20, 2022

    Remarkably, the Whitechapel Institute began its valuable work 120 years ago. And this is continued in the WHITECHAPEL MISSION. It is important today as it was then.

    Love & Peace
    ACHIM

  2. Linda Granfield permalink
    July 20, 2022

    Taken from the streets. Photographed on the rooftop.

    After looking at all these faces, I’m wondering how many survived after leaving the Institute and achieved some kind of self-sufficiency and happiness.
    Some of their descendants might be reading today’s entry.

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