Chelsea (London, England) -- Description and travel
The building is in three wings, enclosing at the back laundry, hospital,
Commandant's house, etc., and great playgrounds for the boys. Long low
dormitories, well ventilated, on the upper floors in the central building
contain forty beds apiece, while those in the two wings are smaller, with
thirteen beds each. Below the big dormitories are the dining-rooms, the
larger one decorated with devices of arms; these were brought from the
Tower and arranged by the boys themselves. There are 550 inmates,
admitted between the ages of nine and eleven, and kept until they are
fourteen or fifteen. The foundation was established by the Duke of York
in 1801, and was ready for occupation by 1803. It was designed to receive
700 boys and 300 girls, and there was an infant establishment connected
with it in the Isle of Wight. In 1823 the girls were removed elsewhere.
There are a number of boys at the sister establishment, the Hibernian
Asylum, in Ireland. The Commandant, Colonel G. A. W. Forrest, is allowed
6-1/2 d. per diem for the food of each boy, and the bill of fare is
extraordinarily good. Cocoa and bread-and-butter, or bread-and-jam, for
breakfast and tea; meat, pudding, vegetables, and bread, for dinner. Cake
on special fete-days as an extra. The boys do credit to their rations,
and show by their bright faces and energy their good health and spirits.
They are under strict military discipline, and both by training and
heredity have a military bias. There is no compulsion exercised, but
fully 90 per cent. of those who are eligible finally enter the army; and
the school record shows a long list of commissioned and non-commissioned
officers, and even two Major-Generals, who owed their early training to
the Chelsea Asylum. The site on which the Asylum stands was bought from
Lord Cadogan; it occupies about twelve acres, and part of it was formerly
used for market-gardens.
One of the schoolrooms has still the pulpit, and a raised gallery running
round, which mark it as having been the original chapel; but the present
chapel stands at the corner of King's Road and Cheltenham Terrace. On
Sunday morning the boys parade on the green in summer and on the large
playground in winter before they march in procession to the chapel with
their band playing, a scene which has been painted by Mr. Morris, A.R.A.,
as "The Sons of the Brave." The chaplain is the Rev. G. H. Andrews. The
gallery of the chapel is open to anyone, and is almost always well
filled. The annual expenditure of the Asylum is supplied by a
Parliamentary grant.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account