A plaque to our angel

Published: 25 February, 2011

• IT’S hustings time for the election of Islington People’s Plaques. As chair of Manor Gardens Welfare Trust I ask readers to consider voting for Florence Keen (1868-1942). Florence founded the North Islington Infant Welfare Centre in 1913, now Manor Gardens Welfare Centre, as a purely voluntary effort. 

It became London’s flagship clinic of its kind. It was progressive, experimental and internationally famed. It remained largely supported by voluntary contributions until the 1960s. We kept our independence from the NHS. We extended our remit but kept to the same values. The centre is on a par with the Peel Institute in Islington, and, though smaller, with Toynbee Hall in Whitechapel.

Florence Keen was honorary treasurer and secretary of the centre from 1913 until 1938. Knowledgeable, hands-on and a persuasive public speaker and writer, she worked full time at the centre. 

She was awarded an OBE in 1937, and her daughter, Althea Davies, and grandson, Tim Davies, continued active involvement until 2000. Our patron from 1923 until her death in 2002 was the Duchess of York, later the Queen Mother.

Florence Keen was a true Islington hero, who literally helped save thousands of babies and children in their first years. She was often called “the Angel of Islington” and “the Florence Nightingale of Islington” by grateful parents, including fathers writing from the Front. 

In 2013, Manor Gardens Welfare Centre will celebrate its 100th anniversary. A green plaque for Florence Keen would be a most appropriate token of our respectful memory.

Please see our website at www.manorgardenscentre.org and do come and visit us at Manor Gardens, just off Holloway Road. 

Voting must be done by February 28; visit www.islington.gov.uk/peoplesplaque or write to Islington Local History Centre, Finsbury Library, 245 St John Street EC1V 4NB.

Dr ANDREW TURTON
Manor Gardens Welfare Centre
Manor Gardens, N7