Our history

As one of the UK’s oldest children’s charities, our history of working to transform the lives of children and young people stretches back over 170 years. The organisation was founded in 1843 by William Williams, a young solicitor’s clerk, supported by the patronage of Lord Shaftesbury (the 7th Earl).

From our first school, to the many residential care homes and young people’s services the charity went on to deliver, to the grant-making body we have become today – our focus has always been on transforming the lives of children and young people.

Today, we are a very different organisation to our beginnings in 1843, but our history gives us rich experience to draw on. We now use our legacy to support small charities that transform the lives of young people in London. And our long history of helping children and young people puts us in a unique position to support our grant-holders in their work.

Here’s a bit about our journey:

1843

Our first school opens. Staffed by 23 volunteers, 150 boys and girls met in a hayloft over a cowshed in Holborn. This was to be the first of a series of ‘Ragged Schools’.

Over time residential ‘refuges’ opened across the Soho/Covent Garden area, housing boys and girls, and teaching them trades and skills for work, such as cobbling, tailoring and domestic service.

1866

At a Valentine’s Day banquet for the homeless boys of London, Lord Shaftesbury, who had become a supporter and patron, asked the boys “Now boys, if a Ship were moored in the Thames, how many of you would be willing to go on board?”. A sea of hands went up and, later that year, Lord Shaftesbury secured the use of a redundant naval warship, the Chichester (joined by the ship, the Arethusa in 1874). This was the start of over 100 years of training boys for future life in the Royal and Merchant Navy.

1867

The farm school at Bisley opens. Later, The Shaftesbury Boys’ School opens there (in 1873).

1900

By this time, more than 1,000 children were in the residential care of the charity, then named ‘The National Refuge for the Homeless and Destitute Children’.

1904

Our name changes to ‘Shaftesbury Homes and Arethusa’.

1900-1940

The ‘refuges’ in London are joined together and relocated out of London, into several large institutional schools.

In 1919, Prince Edward, The Prince of Wales becomes our President. The Royal Patronage is later taken on by HRH Queen Elizabeth II until her death in 2022.

1940-1970

As the fostering system expands, the need for large institutions reduces. The large institutions are sold and childcare shifts to a more domestic size.

1975

The Arethusa training ship is sold to the South Street Seaport Museum, New York and her name changed to the original ‘Peking’. A new boat (the Arethusa ketch) is acquired instead, and the on-shore facilities for the training ship at Upnor on the Medway are developed into an outdoor adventure centre - the Arethusa Venture Centre. The ‘Peking’ has since moved back to a Hamburg shipyard for restoration into a museum ship.

1990

Supported housing and care leaver services are set up in Suffolk and London.

1993

We enter into the first service level agreement for a partnership between a local authority and a charity, with Wandsworth borough. Later, similar agreements to manage children’s homes would be forged with Lambeth borough (in 1998) and Southwark Council (in 2004).

2004-2020

Services were developed delivering our main themes: alternative provision, health and well-being, supported accommodation, vocational training, and social enterprise.

During this time the charity successfully initiated or developed existing services which met our charitable objectives. These included our successful project Siblings United, bringing together siblings separated by the care system on regular camps to maintain and build their relationships. We also ran an independent school for 14 to 17 year olds in Warwickshire who find attending mainstream education very difficult, and the wonderful Arethusa Venture Centre on the Medway River.

2021

Following two years of carefully managed handover of our provision, we reform to become a grant-making body, SYP Trust. Supported by our patronage from HRH Queen Elizabeth II, we now use our legacy to strengthen opportunities within the community for young people to learn, be healthy, be heard, and be active citizens.

Discover more

Visit our Support us page if you would like to learn more about our history, including if you have a personal or family history with the charity and want to search our archives or get involved in our work.