British Raj Era London Home For Indian Ayahs To Be Honoured With Blue Plaque, Know About Its Significance

English Heritage noted that the Ayahs' Home in Hackney provided safety and shelter to many women who had arrived in London with British families.

London City Mission Ayahs and Amahs' Home, 1938. Scenes at the London City Mission Ayahs and Amahs (Indian and Chinese Nurses) Home in King Edward Street, Hackney. The 'nannies' from Burmah, Calcutta, Ceylon and Hong Kong came to this country weeks ago with English families as nurses to their babies. (Photo by Daily Herald Archive/National Science & Media Museum/SSPL via Getty Images)

New Delhi: A home for Ayahs or nursemaids brought back by British families from India to London during the Raj will be honoured with a Blue Plaque.

This comes as part of a series to highlight the working-class experiences of the UK capital, news agency PTI reported.

The Blue Plaque scheme is run by the English Heritage charity. It honours the historic significance of particular buildings across London.

According to PTI, the Ayahs' Home in the Hackney area of east London dates back to 1900-1921. It housed many maids from India and other colonies in South and South-East Asia.

English Heritage noted that the Ayahs' Home in Hackney provided safety and shelter to many women who had arrived in London with British families only to find that their employers did not honour the promise of a return journey, or offer the means to survive in the interim.

The Ayahs, thus abandoned, were often forced into common lodging houses or the workhouse, it stated.

The term Ayah was applied to the women who served the British as nannies and nursemaids in India and other colonies.

The home's Blue Plaque, part of the charity's 2022 cohort, is part of an effort to celebrate women's experiences in London by English Heritage. The London home of British Indian spy Noor Inayat Khan was another recent one that was honoured.

"Many of the stories we are telling this year are those of London's working class," said Anna Eavis, Curatorial Director and Secretary of the English Heritage Blue Plaques Panel.

"I am particularly excited by the Match Girls' plaque. This strike, organised by a group of impoverished young women, mostly between 15 and 20 years old, holds such an important place in the history of unionised labour and the women's movement as a whole," she added, as quoted by PTI.

The famous Match Girls' Strike of 1888 is believed to have changed the course of modern British labour history. It involved around 1,400 of the predominantly female workforce walking out of the match factory in the Bow area of east London. The women stayed out under considerable hardship and won a resounding victory after three weeks as almost all of their demands were met.

Other English Heritage London Blue Plaques to be unveiled this year include the home of mathematician Oliver Heaviside in Camden, north London, and Dr John Conolly and his former Hanwell Asylum in west London, that pioneered the care for the mentally unwell in the city.

(With Agency Inputs)