Childhood in Little Lon

To the children who lived there, Little Lon was home. The streets and lanes were their playground; their chants and laughter were part of the sounds of Little Lon. Many of the games the children played would be familiar to today’s children – hopscotch, cowboys and Indians, running after hoops, chasey and nick-nock – when you knock on someone’s door and run away before they answer it.

The toys would be familiar too: marbles, knuckle bones, toy soldiers, dolls, miniature tea sets and spinning tops were all uncovered in archaeolgoical digs of the area. What we notice from these finds is that there were many handmade toys, including wooden Frozen Charlotte dolls, and knuckle bones made from sheep verterbrae. We also know from Marie Hayes, a woman who grew up in Little Lon in the 1920s and 1930s, that children made whistles from apricot stones.

John Gye’s 1st birthday Party, 17 March 1915, Cumberland Place, Little Lon. John Gye was Marie Hayes’ half brother.
Source: Marie Owen

Charitable visitors considered Little Lon no place for children. They worried that the children were underfed, shabbily dressed and shoeless, and exposed to the moral dangers of prostitution and addiction. Sister Esther recorded many of the activities organised by the Mission to the Streets and Lanes to keep children off the street and improve their lot in life in her daybook of 1889; activities included Sunday School, a choir, Little Boys’ class, and the Excelsior Club where children sang, sewed and played games.

There were also a number of schools in the area which children were encouraged to attend: St Peter’s, St John’s, Hornbrook Ragged School (later named St George’s Day School) and St Josephs. Maries Hayes, who went to the Catholic St Joseph’s school, recalls the two teaching sisters and the parish priest, Father Brosnan, kept a tight rein on their charges.

St Joseph’s School, Cumberland Place, early 20th century.
Source: Archive of the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne

Boys and girls were separated in the playground, and each morning the children had to wash their hands in warm water with scented soap. Heads were inspected regularly for lice, and every Friday afternoon the children had to swallow a dose of salts before going home. This hygiene routine was not exclusive to St Joseph’s.