Schoolchildren in St Saviour's Child Garden, Canongate. Image: Museums Galleries Edinburgh.

The Life of a Slum Child

by Lyn Stevens
April 17, 2024

Between 1903 and 1913, in a small area of Edinburgh’s Old Town, five charitable organizations known as Child Gardens or Free Kindergartens were established for children of preschool age. They were located close together, within a radius of 2.5 miles, to serve the densely-packed local population of poor young children. The Child Gardens provided both social care and education and used Froebel and Montessori methods.

In the photograph, a Free Kindergarten teacher — probably Lileen Hardy — sits in the garden of the St. Saviour’s Child Garden surrounded by children. The teacher and children hold dolls as if they were babies, a wicker and wooden cot can also be seen. As well as teaching young children the basics of reading and writing, Free Kindergarten lessons were focused on appreciating nature and learning useful skills for future life, such as how to perform household chores and child-rearing.

The Free Kindergarten movement was truly international, starting in Europe and spreading to North America and New Zealand. They charged a minimal fee per child but were in essence charitable organizations. Subscriptions by wealthy residents paid for premises, some minimal teaching salaries, equipment, and outings for the children, but teaching volunteers were needed to sustain the work.

This photograph of the teacher and children was used in The Life of a Slum Child, a handmade booklet circulated in the city of Edinburgh as a fundraising tool. It was most likely produced by Lileen Hardy around 1908 when St. Saviour’s Child Garden had relocated to Chessel’s Court, just off the Canongate on the Royal Mile.

In the booklet, the parents living in the slum of the Old Town, are portrayed as “irresponsible, self-indulgent and bold.” The text is very judgmental, which is at odds with Lileen’s attitude in her published diary, but this tone may have been thought to be more effective in gathering funds from Edinburgh’s wealthy citizens. The booklet outlines all the dangers to the children’s young minds, describing them being exposed to gossip, drunkenness and idleness. And then it proclaims, “Now for the remedy!”: the Free Kindergarten. “Mothered and taught by trained discipline and love – with flowers to tend as eagerly & carefully as they themselves are tended – how different is the opening view of life … And the childish glee & merriment which echoes from the sand-patch tell their own story. The joy of life is not filtered through the filth of the streets or the sordidness of the home.”

The group of photos used in the booklet can be seen online at Capital Collections. You can also find Lileen Hardy’s Diary of a Free Kindergarten from 1912, which describes the day to day activities at St Saviour’s Child Garden and Lileen’s aspirations and concerns for the slum children she gets to know so well.


Lyn Stevens is a Curator at the Museum of Childhood in Edinburgh. Lyn works extensively with the Museum’s large book collection in partnership with the academic literature group SELCIE, creating exhibitions, publications and research. She also works to make the collection more representative and inclusive, and has recently collaborated with the Edinburgh Caribbean Association for the Exchange project. Lyn is interested in social history and recently completed an MA focusing on the Free Kindergarten movement in Edinburgh.


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