Poplars Hall Hutton Brentwood |
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Poplars Hall, was built in 1906 as the dining hall for Hutton Poplars residential home. Hutton Poplars was built by George Lansbury and was a Training School or Residential Home situated near the village of Hutton and home for underprivileged and destitute children from the district of Poplar in the east end of London. Like much of London during the Victorian era the Borough of Poplar faced high poverty levels. As the 19th century drew to a close the workhouses and orphanages in the borough were trying to cope with significant overcrowding. The chairman of the Board of Guardians for the region, George Lansbury, saw an opportunity to expand their operations into the Essex countryside, and convinced the Board to acquire 104 acres of land situated between Hutton and Shenfield on the Rayleigh Road. In 1906 the Board completed work on a self-contained community capable of housing anything from 400 - 700 children at any one time with such buildings as the Matrons block, porters lodge, administration block, farm building, training laundry, training workshops, a gymnasium, infirmary, receiving ward, a school (Bishops Hill), Nursery, Sick Bay, boys dining hall and a very large swimming pool alongside the accommodation for the staff. The Hutton Poplars Childrens homes were closed in 1982 and most of the original buildings have since been bulldozed including all the childrens homes, Huttons great Chimney which was situated at the engineers block and could be seen around for miles is no longer there and the popular swimming pool which attracted people from all over has also since been demolished, there are however some reminders which still stand to this day, the original School which was called Bishops Hill and was located inside the grounds still remains as an adult Community Learning centre for the Mid Essex Adult Community College, the original, although renovated boys dining hall also still remains inside the grounds and is now known as Poplars Hall. On 4th May 1906 Lord Balfour of the House of Lords described Hutton Poplars as being "a long way ahead of public schools such as Eton or Harrow"
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