Banstead Cottage Homes

These cottage homes opened in 1880 and were used as children's homes until 1975.

The buildings of the cottage homes were on either side of an avenue between the rail line and Fir Tree Road. Halfway down the avenue was the superintendent's house, which was opposite the day school (and war memorial). Initially, the girls' cottages were on the left and the boys' were on the right. The sick bay was on the left at the far end of the avenue.

There were, in all, 33 buildings in the homes including a covered swimming pool and a chapel (destroyed by a fire in 1968).

In the 1960s and 1970s, there were a total of 23 children's houses which were each run semi-independently with a superintendent and matron overseeing the whole.

Do you have memories of Beechholme that you would like to share?

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Number of children:

1880 - 400+

1954 - 464

1966 - 250-300

1973 - 200

It was not always called Banstead Cottage Homes however. Initially, it was called the Kensington and Chelsea District School and, from the early 1950s, it was called Beechholme. It was situated on Fir Tree Road, Nork, west of Banstead railway station[1].

The buildings have now been completely demolished.

LOOKING FOR RECORDS?

Records from these Homes are held by the London Metropolitan Archives. You can search the archives here as a guest.

Have a look at our page on Accessing records for information about your rights and restrictions when looking for personal information about yourself or others.

[1]. Maciejewski R, 2010, Beecholme - a children's village, Banstead History Group

Beechholme: A children's village by the Banstead History Research Group is a great source of information and memories about the homes.