Lesser known about is the role these flower sellers play in Shaftesbury’s history and how they influenced our work today.
From the mid-19th century, impoverished young girls, many of them disabled, would try to scrape a living by selling fresh flowers and watercress in central London. This was low skilled work that, in some cases, helped keep them safe from exploitation. Children as young as five worked long days, often cold and hungry, with no guaranteed income.
Their plight inspired John Groom – a young Sunday School preacher – to dedicate the rest of his life to improving the lives of people with disabilities.
His main supporter in this work? None other than our founder and namesake, Anthony Ashley Cooper, the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury.
As contemporaries in Victorian London, both men were revered as pioneers of social reform, motivated by their Christian beliefs to champion the poor and the vulnerable.
In 2007, long after their respective deaths, the charities founded by the two men – The Shaftesbury Society and John Grooms – merged. In 2016, the organisation was joined by Prospects, another Christian charity working for people with disabilities, to become Shaftesbury as we are today.
Born in 1845, John Groom was not from a privileged background. As an apprentice silver engraver, he witnessed poverty on the streets and was particularly moved by the blind and physically disabled girls. He began inviting them to his church in an attempt to improve their working conditions and inspire faith in them. The girls were actively encouraged to attend one of three Sunday Schools established by John Groom.
The Watercress and Flower Girls’ Christian Mission was formally founded in 1866 providing hot food and facilities to wash and mend clothes at rented premises near Covent Garden flower market. It became more high profile and attracted wealthy benefactors when endorsed by Lord Shaftesbury (the 7th Earl), who became President that first year and remained so until his death in 1885.
The Mission expanded rapidly to meet growing demand. Centres opened up across London with the aim of meeting both the spiritual and physical needs of the flower sellers. They were given official pitches to sell from, protection from the police, even a uniform.
By 1876, there was a soup kitchen and schoolroom for 350 girls in Clerkenwell. From 1890, the Mission also ran an orphanage for up to 250 girls in Clacton, Essex. Multiple properties, named after flowers, became known as the Flower Village and provided holiday accommodation for the London girls.
John Groom believed that by giving them an occupation and a degree of independence, young girls with disabilities were empowered to help themselves out of poverty rather than be reliant on charity. Supporting people to be as independent as possible remains integral to our work today.
It was a novel concept in the 1800s but in keeping with Lord Shaftesbury’s mission to educate children through the Ragged School Movement – the forerunner of what became The Shaftesbury Society.
As the availability of flowers was seasonal, John Groom’s Crippleage as it became known, diversified and established factories to enable the girls to support themselves by making artificial flowers.
This enterprise attracted royal patronage in 1912 when Queen Alexandra, wife of Edward VII, commissioned the girls to make buttonholes for her inaugural Alexandra Rose Day, which marked 50 years since she arrived in Great Britain from Denmark.
The sale of these flowers raised money for Alexandra’s favourite charities and became an annual event. This set the precedent for poppies to be adopted as a symbol of remembrance and sold in aid of war veterans almost a decade later.
After the birth of William Prince of Wales in June 1982, King Charles was pictured outside the hospital wearing a John Grooms Alexandra Rose.
With his health failing, John Groom spent the final year of his life at the orphanage in Clacton where he died in 1919. His gravestone reads: ‘A servant of God and a friend of the poor, the orphaned and the afflicted’.
His eldest son Alfred continued the charity’s work and in 1932, operations moved to purpose built homes and factories in Edgware, where we still have a Shaftesbury service today. Another royal commission came in 1937, when the flower girls were tasked with making lilies from the coronation robe worn by King George’s wife, Elizabeth (who we know as the Queen Mother).
An example of one of these intricately made flowers is preserved in the archives of the Bodleian Library, having been presented to the Countess of Clarendon in 1937 after she attended the coronation. The original box reads: ‘Made by the girls of the John Groom’s Crippleage’.
https://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/archivesandmanuscripts/2021/08/17/royal-velve
For many years, supporters of the charity were gifted a red rose at Christmas. This led to them being sold in the City of London for people to wear on St George’s Day as a symbol of national pride. We were one of the very few charities permitted inside the underwriting room at Lloyd’s of London.
Sales took off, at home and within the expat community abroad, creating plenty of work for the flower girls and raising much-needed funds. Over the years, we have heard from several supporters that they still have one of these roses (some red, some white).
This tradition lasted from the 1930s until the outbreak of World War II, after which the demand for artificial flowers declined. The post war creation of a welfare state meant there was less need for social enterprise and the charity’s focus shifted to supporting adults with disabilities.
In a nod to our heritage, the tradition of selling red roses was revived as a John Groom’s fundraising campaign in the 1980s and 90s. Eddie George, then-Governor of the Bank of England, was pictured promoting the appeal outside the London Stock Exchange on St George’s Day in 1993.
Our historical link to the flower girls was sustained through ownership of the original ‘The Flower Seller’ painting by prominent Victorian artist, William Frith, who gifted it to John Groom in 1865. It was displayed at the Mansion House in London for a time and featured on the BBC’s Antiques Road Show in 2005 before being sold at auction in 2019, raising £21,600.
By the time support for flower sellers eventually ended after 70 years, thousands of young girls had benefited. John Groom’s charity survived by changing with the times and taking a flexible approach to care. This rings true today as we continue to evolve according to need, inspired by the values of our Victorian founders.
(Featured image: John Groom with flower girls, sourced from ‘In a Changing World’ by Nancy Martin)