An Article published in The Liverpool Citizen, June 18th 1890
By-Ways of Benevolence
A walk along Mill Street, Toxteth Park in the direction of the Florence Institute, is calculated to convey the idea that South-end of Liverpool is quite as well provided with the elements of rowdyism as in the north. The class of rough, unkempt boys you meet in the street are of much the same type as those encountered at the north end, only that, in the latter district, the rough element has attained a far more vigorous development than in the south, where they can make no pretence to number “High Rippers” among the youthful population. The South-end street boys and hobbledehoys, however, afford, to judge by their appearance, very promising material for the manufacturer of a similar class, though such a development must be held to be, to the last degree, undesirable.
Life in Toxteth Park and among the classes by which it is chiefly peopled, must as a rule, be decidedly depressing to body and mind. In the south, as in the north, public houses predominate over the places of business to a remarkable extent and the majority of them seem to be far more prosperous than the ordinary shopkeepers, though a few bear the evident signs of neglect and decay. These, however, are chiefly the small beer houses. The shops are mostly small, and it is plain from the appearance of the poor little stocks, as well as from that of the shopkeepers, that the struggle to make both ends meet is a severe and continuous one. From each side of Mill Street run narrow streets and courts densely populated, and of course, swarming with children of all ages. Overall the district hangs that palpable atmosphere of gloom and oppression which is the inevitable characteristic of a poverty-stricken neighbourhood.
For the children of such a district, of all ages, there is, of course, no playground but the streets, though they occasionally, on holidays, make pilgrimage to Prince’s or Sefton Parks, and probably they would do oftener but for the awe-inspiring keepers and policemen. Perhaps however, it is the growing lads who are most to be pitied, in whose cases promising natural material may be wasted for want of proper care and cultivation. That there is promising natural material in many of these lads, and valuable qualities of mind and disposition that are only waiting for judicious development, is in fact abundantly demonstrated by the experience of recent years in the case of many places similar in design and aim to the Florence Institute. This has not yet been in existence 12 months having only been opened last September; and in all its exterior and interior arrangements its founders have certainly bettered the instruction afforded by their predecessors.
The Florence Institute, as the reader is no doubt aware, was built at the sole cost of the late Mr Bernard Hall to commemorate the memory of a beloved and lost daughter. Mr Hall lived to see the completion of the work, though he was unable, through illness, to take part in the opening ceremony, which was attended by a large gathering of Liverpool’s leading citizens, accompanied by the ladies of their families and headed by the mayor, Mr E. H. Cookson. By this ceremony was inaugurated at the south end of Liverpool an institution similar in all respects to that provided five years earlier for the north end by the munificence of Mr W. Cliff. Comparisons are proverbially odious, but there can be no doubt that the designers of the Florence Institute can be gained immaterially from the experience required in the erection of the North-end establishment. The exteriors of both are equally imposing, but the interior arrangements of the Florence Institute are upon much the most extensive and elaborate scale.
The Institute is fortunately situated in being in the older and more open part of Mill Street and away from the more densely populated quarters, though within easy reach of them. Five minutes after the walk brings you from the crowded streets and ports to a point where the two broad thoroughfares of Mill Street and Wellington Road intersect each other. The situation is elevated, and standing at the junction of the two streets and looking down Wellington Road, you get a good view of the river and the Welsh hills in the distance, though the view is marred by the huge retorts of a gas works at the bottom of the road. Turning to the Institute, the first glance at the building cannot fail to produce a pleasing impression from its thoroughly English character and from the warmth of effect produced by the use of redbrick, with rich terracotta ornamentation. The side facing Wellington Road is particularly attractive in appearance from the taste of its design and, execution and is highly suggestive of an English 16th Century Manor House such as one might expect to find embowered in trees in some agricultural district far from the madding crowd. The angle at the junction of Mill Street and Wellington Road is occupied by an octagonal tower having an open balcony, from which a fine view of the river, the Cheshire coast, and the distant Welsh hills may be obtained in clear weather. At the main entrance several youths, though by no means of the rough and unkempt order, are lounging and chatting with a pleasant air of proprietorship just as members will sometimes do at the door of the Palentine Club. Passing these and entering, we find a broad corridor, lined with glazed dark brick dados, and buff brick wall lining above. On the east of this corridor is the gymnasium, 90 feet by 30 feet in dimensions, and looking little, if at all inferior in size to the Mirtle Street gymnasium as far as working space is concerned, though, of course with much simpler gymnastic appliances. Here a number of boys of all ages and conditions are amusing themselves, from the youth who is in a position to sport a gymnastic costume, to the tattered urchin who has to content himself with exercising in his shirt sleeves and stockinged feet. All the boys, however, from the biggest to the least, are evidently animated by a genuinely democratic spirit of comradeship and good-fellowship. Attached to the gymnasium there is extensive bath and lavatory accommodation, all the materials used in the construction being of the best and most durable character. There is also a room which is called the “pawn shop” fitted up with open ranges of lockers where the boys can leave their coats, caps, shoes &c. while they are in the gymnasium, receiving in each case a brass cheque to enable them to retain their property.
On the west of the central corridor is the reading room, an exceedingly handsome and comfortable apartment 90 feet by 21 feet, and having five large mullioned and transomed bay windows looking in to Mill Street. In these bay windows, which are in all cases provided with seats, the boys may be seen sitting singly or in groups absorbed in books or papers. The room is also provided with a series of small, square tables which may be used either for reading or for playing draughts, dominoes and other games. At one side of the room, there is a bookcase with a small but good stock of books, which from their condition are in pretty constant use. To judge from the state of the bindings the set of Dickens stands decidedly first in the estimation of the young readers. There is also a bar at one end of the supply of such refreshments as tea, coffee, &c. On the floor above the reading room, and approached by a wide and handsome staircase from the main entrance, there is an extensive and commodious hall, provided with a stage and proscenium which may be used either as a theatre or concert room. This room is 90 feet by 40 feet, and must be capable of accommodating about 1000 people. Here dramatic performances and concerts have been given during the winter, the performers in some instances being the boys belonging to the Institute, though in most cases the entertainment has been provided by friends, sympathisers and voluntary workers at the classes in connection with the Institute.
Here it may be remembered that at the Florence, as at the Gordon Institute, the workers are all voluntary, and their work is a labour of love bearing its own reward. Four large school rooms, two on the ground floor and two above, face Wellington Road, and in the classes during the winter are in all cases conducted by the voluntary teachers, many of whom would have no difficulty in finding much more agreeable ways of employing their time, from a social point of view. One of these school rooms is used for literary and debating class at which the boys are encouraged to read papers of their own composition and to engage in discussion on such subjects as may interest them. There are also classes where the boys may learn music, vocal and instrumental, joinery in all its departments and wood carving. In these respects, however, the Institution can scarcely as yet be said to in full working order as far as the manual part of the training is concerned. The workshops are there in the basement of the building, but at present they have not even been cleared from the builders debris, and the only sign of work in one of them is a half finished catamaran or surfboat, which some of the boys have been constructing under the guise of an instructor.
Of course the institute is at its highest tide of work during the winter months, when the average number membership is about 1000. At present it is only about a third of that number, and will continue small during the summer, when outdoor are naturally superior to indoor attractions. Even in the former, however the Institute holds its own, having its harriers, cricket, rounders and other clubs, as well as the brigade drill purposes similar to the Gordon. Drill is always popular with boys and nothing is better for giving them steadiness and manliness, and making them amenable to discipline. The Florence, like the Gordon boys, have a very useful little armoury of rifles, without which, perhaps, even the attractions of drill might be a little tame. With rifles, however, and a brass band of their own to boot, they are not likely to fail in military zeal and enthusiasm. Curiously enough, Mr Cunningham, the superintendent of the Florence Institute whose popularity with the boys is evident, was the first superintendent of the Gordon Institute and had been working for the social, moral and religious amelioration of the lads of the North-end before the Gordon Institute was founded to provide a home for all agencies he had set in motion. The fact, to, is evident to the most casual observation, that he has brought the work at the Florence the same zeal and enthusiasm which led him to anticipate by his own exertions the establishment of the Gordon – twin blessings for the juvenile humanity of the north and south of Liverpool.
Image: Liverpool Record Office & Libraries