"Edgr House" For Women, 4 Florenceville Drive Ormeau, Belfast

[Lostlizzie]

Hi,
I have a relative at the above address during the 1911 census.   Can anyone please give me some information about this house for women.  There seems to be single, married and widowed women of all denominations resident at the time of the census.  Thanks,

[ShaunJ]

The House and Building Return lists it as "Edgr Home for Women".

There's a reference to the 1901-2 building of the new "Edgar Home" here http://www.dia.ie/works/view/53005

It was formerly the "Female Penitentiary" - a charitable institution. Snippets here  https://goo.gl/qCJ7kF

[ShaunJ]

About Dr Edgar http://www.fitzroy.org.uk/Publisher/File.aspx?ID=29187

[ShaunJ]

See "Prostitution and Irish Society 1800-1940" https://goo.gl/jP4zoA

[hanes teulu]

The Edgar Home was at 14 Brunswick Street late 19th Century. An Annual General Meeting, reported in the Belfast News Letter, Jan 1895, gives an insight to its work.

A letter in the same paper in April 1899 mentions the Home numbering 28 beds in 1887 and 52 in 1899 and suggesting another small home might be necessary. Perhaps this prompted the move to  Florenceville Drive? - can be found on NI maps at  http://maps.ehsni.gov.uk/Mapviewer/Default.aspx

[hanes teulu]

The 1895 annual report opens -

"Many wanderers from the path of purity and rectitude found within its walls a safe and happy shelter from the ruthless storms of temptation and vice"

[Lostlizzie]

Thanks everyone for all your input, I now have a clearer picture, and thanks for the reading material, very interesting.