Bournbrook, Selly Oak, Birmingham   

Work started on building a new children’s home in Selly Oak in 1973. This was at a time when there was significant building of children’s homes going on in Birmingham – the first six 18-bed homes had recently been completed and work was underway on the next three. Homes in Hockley and on Lea Hall Road were also being built.

Bournbrook was built at 67 Bournbrook Road as a 17-bed home to the same design as Lea Hall Road. It opened in around 1975 but the number of beds had already been reduced to 16. The two buildings looked very similar to each other.Between 1975 and 1980, Julia Garrett managed the home and lived on the premises while bringing up her own young family.

In 2009 the home closed, was then demolished and was rebuilt on exactly the same site. It reopened in 2010 or 2011.

The home was closed again in 2013 as the following BBC report states: 

"Two Birmingham children's homes close

"Two council-run children's homes in Birmingham have been closed after being rated as inadequate by inspectors.

"Improvements at Fairfield Children's Home, in Erdington, and Bournbrook Children's Home, in Selly Oak, had not been made 'as quickly as we would have liked', the city council said.

"Youngsters were said to be frequently playing truant or going missing.

"The decision comes after a series of damning reports into the council's children's services department.

"Last week, the authority said nearly £10m will be pumped into the department after children had been failed "for five years".

Councillor Brigid Jones said the closure decision was taken jointly with Ofsted. 'The amount of time it would take to rectify some of the issues would be a detriment to young people there,' she said.

"The residents have been moved to new homes, she said.

"There are 10 council-run homes in the city following last year's closure of five homes."