Women at work, children at play: Early nursery schools in the UK
Images from the Daily Herald Archive tell the story of how early day nurseries helped women go to work while their children learned and played.
A photographic print of Education, Schools - Caledonian A photographic print of Education, Schools - CaledonianNational Science and Media Museum
Nursery schools first appeared in the UK during the 19th century as a way of freeing women to work in factories. By the early 20th century, the plight of children living in impoverished working-class areas inspired reformers and missionaries to found day nurseries.
Daily Herald Photograph: Herries Road Nurseries Daily Herald Photograph: Herries Road Nurseries (1938-07-19) by Tomlin, HaroldNational Science and Media Museum
Their work set standards for care that continue to influence approaches to early childhood education. Though valued by families, public support for nurseries remains precarious even in the 21st century.
Principles of early childhood education
In 1914, Christian socialists and suffragettes Margaret and Rachel McMillan opened an open-air nursery that supported working parents in Deptford. Their ideas about spending time outdoors, balancing play with structured activity and providing meals continue to inspire educators.
Daily Herald Photograph: Kingsway CrecheNational Science and Media Museum
Christian charities
These children play with a hobby horse at another nursery, this one founded by Wesleyan Methodists at the West London Mission. Perched atop Kingsway Hall, it supported working mothers from Drury Land and Theobalds Road.
Many of London’s early nursery schools favoured rooftop locations. Such spots got children off the city’s polluted streets, provided a safe space for play, and ensured children weren’t left unsupervised while parents worked. The Kingsway Creche provided places for up to 50 children aged 2–5, with the eldest receiving kindergarten instruction from a qualified nurse-teacher.
Supporting communities
In 1915, sisters Muriel and Doris Lester founded the Kingsley Hall Community Centre in East London’s impoverished Bow district. Run as a cooperative, the centre enabled access to education, healthcare and space to socialise.
Daily Herald Photograph: Tottenham Infant Welfare ClinicNational Science and Media Museum
Enabling children and mothers to thrive, the sisters advocated, meant empowering communities with access to quality services. By the 1930s, similar programmes were available in places like Tottenham.
In the 21st century, Sure Start Children’s Centres fulfil a similar function.
Through involvement with the Labour Movement, Muriel Lester ensured government expenditure on a milk programme that improved the health of mothers and children in her borough. The success of the programme, demonstrated with plummeting infant mortality rates, paved the way for future services. By the 1930s, the Labour Party more widely supported efforts to improve children’s nutrition. Here Walter Elliot, then Minister of Agriculture, opens a new milk campaign at the Addison Gardens Schools.
Daily Herald Photograph: Bow Nursery SchoolNational Science and Media Museum
‘Nothing is too good for the children of Bow!’
Trained as an educator, Verona Doris Lester founded Children’s House in 1923. Children could attend the new nursery for 2s/week, though only about a third of attendees were able to pay. Grants from the local education authority and fundraising helped defray costs.
Daily Herald Photograph: Bow Nursery SchoolNational Science and Media Museum
Countering health risks
The school, designed by architect Charles Cowles-Voysey, was purpose built to be full of light and fresh air. In addition to a play area, the flat roof provided a space for naps in the sunshine—a strategy for countering rickets and improving the overall health of the children.
Based on the principles of the Montessori method, the curriculum at Children’s House emphasised independence, collaborative play, and self-directed learning that nurtured each child’s interests and creativity. Highly trained teachers shaped the learning environment and ensured each child received a daily hot meal. Doctors, nutritionists and other experts regularly checked in on the children and their families.
Wherever a nursery school is opened, and the mothers get to know of it, there is immediately a long waiting list. There is an urgent need for more nursery schools, and fortunately the country is beginning to realise this.
Lillian de Lissa, Chairman, Nursery School Association, quoted in the Daily Herald, 7 January 1930
Daily Herald Photograph: Vale Road Nursery SchoolNational Science and Media Museum
Steps towards universal access
By 1930 there were only about 30 nursery schools in the UK to meet the demand of 3 million children. Despite the Labour Party’s election promises, a fiscal crisis got in the way of funding new schools. Without national pressure, only a few local councils opened new facilities.
The purpose-built fixtures and furniture were child-sized. And children at the Vale Road Nursery received their own towel, soap, toothbrush, tumbler, and overalls to wear. The children stored these treasures in their own assigned spot. Big, bright windows enabled access to fresh air and sunlight while the children got much-needed naps after lunch.
Daily Herald Photograph: Vale Road Nursery SchoolNational Science and Media Museum
Temporary support for women at work
Vale Road had spaces for 75 children when it opened. But during the Second World War, capacity increased. Women needed a safe place to care for their children as they increasingly assumed positions at the frontlines of wartime industry.
Women who left industry after the war must be attracted back. One important measure to help this, it is suggested, is the provision of more day nurseries. The Government is being pressed to raise the grant to local authorities, the cut in which last April greatly reduced the number of nurseries.
George Thomas, Industrial Correspondent, writing in the Daily Herald, 8 October 1946
Women and children go home
In the years following the Second World War, the status of nursery schools remained uncertain. Despite pressure to expand provisions, the 1944 Education Act failed to make nurseries mandatory. Availability continued to depend on the willingness of local authorities to invest.
Some employers tempted women into the workforce by providing childcare facilities. The Platignum Pen Factory, for example, invested £15,000 in a state-of-the-art crèche with nursing staff where working mothers could drop off their children as they arrived for work and check in on them over lunch hour. Here, mothers take a break from work to watch their children play.
Broken promises and unrealised possibilities
Over the 20th century, politicians of all political stripes—from George Lansbury to Margaret Thatcher—sought to support children and families through policies and funding that aimed to expand nursery school provisions. But policies aimed at ensuring equitable access to early childhood education have tended to fail in the face of fiscal crises and a lack of political will.
Daily Herald Photograph: Nuns Street Nursery SchoolNational Science and Media Museum
The result?
21st-century early childhood education remains an uneven patchwork of public and private provisions. Possibilities for mothers to work while their children play and learn in nursery schools remains an unrealised dream, more than a hundred years in the making.
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