St Christopher's Home for Babies, Burley

St Christopher's Diocesan Babies' Home, Burley, Leeds was opened in c1917 and transferred to the management of the Society on 1 July 1928 when it was renamed St Christopher's Home for Babies. The Annual Report for 1928 indicates that the Home would not have survived as an independent institution for much longer.

The Home, which could house 30 babies, was reopened and dedicated on 24 August 1928, with HRH Princess Mary Viscountess Lascelles performing the opening ceremony.

In 1928 the building was described: 'Built about seventy years ago, the house has been added to at various times and is now a somewhat complicated building with far too much space in passages...The house contains large and attractive rooms...there is a fairly well equipped laundry in the outbuildings with its own hot water supply'.

Improvements were made to the Home in 1929 with the installation of bathrooms and baths and that Winter the Ministry of Health also gave permission for the installation of a Violet Ray Lamp. The Society's magazine Our Waifs and Strays described it as follows: 'this is the first lamp of its particular kind - specially designed for baby work - which administers Violet Ray and Radiant Heat at the same time'.

In 1932 the closure of the Home and the setting up of a new babies' home near Leeds was discussed - probably because the lease was about to expire. The Head Office file relating to the Home also makes it clear that the building needed much work. The decision was taken in 1928 not to try to purchase the building given its present state and in 1934 the residents moved to the refurbished Beckett Home for Babies, Meanwood, Leeds.