File:Henry Irving portrait.jpg

 

 

The Actors' Orphanage

aka Langley Hall / Silverlands

 

 

The Actors' Orphanage, Croydon was founded in 1896 by Kittie Carson, an actor who also founded the Theatrical Guild.

 

In 1912, the Actors' Orphanage Fund was started to fund the orphanage.

 

The orphanage was intended for the children of actors.

 

The first President of the orphanage was Sir Henry Irving (pictured left).

 

In 1915 the orphanage moved to Langley Hall at Langley (two miles from Slough). The orphanage was both a home and a school to around 60 children.

 

Langley Hall is now a school - Langley Hall Primary Academy.

 

The home and school was moved to Silverlands at Chertsey, Surrey in 1938 where it remained until 1940. In September 1940 the orphanage was evacuated to the Edwin Gould Foundation in New York. 

 

After the War, the orphanage moved again, to Silverlands in Chertsey.

 

Silverlands standing empty in 2010

 

The orphanage closed in 1958. The Actors' Orphanage Fund became The Actors' Charitable Trust, which took on the running of the Gracie Fields orphanage for the children of actors in Peacehaven.

 

LOOKING FOR INFORMATION?

 

Resources available on other external websites:

 

An article about The Theatrical Guild

 

An article about Kittie Carson

 

Photographs of Silverlands

 

A YouTube video of Silverlands PLEASE NOTE: contains swearing and alleged illegal activity (trespassing)

 

The Actors' Charitable Trust contact details:

 

58 Bloomsbury Street

London WC1B 3QT

 

Telephone: 020 7636 7868

e-mail: robert@tactactors.org