Welcome to Tooting180
Restoring the names, and dignity, of the forgotten children of Tooting
In the winter of 1848–49, nearly 200 children died in a cholera outbreak at a private pauper 'farm' in Tooting, South London. Their names were largely unrecorded in the histories. The man who ran the institution was tried for manslaughter, but ultimately acquitted. His name survived. Most of the children's did not.
Tooting180 is an ongoing research project to identify each of those lost children and tell their stories. With the help of volunteers and archival research, we are building a database of the boys and girls who passed through the Tooting and Brixton pauper farms — many of them poor, orphaned, or displaced by circumstance.
So far, we have:
- Identified 849 children who lived in the Drouet institutions in Tooting and Brixton
- Tracked 1,828 movements of children into and out of the homes
- Confirmed the identities of 24 of the 180 cholera victims
This is only the beginning. With your help we can recover more names, reconnect families scattered through the system, and give these children the dignity of remembrance.
Find out more about the Tooting180 project
On this day...
- Ellen BELL died on this day in 1847.
- Mary WEBB died on this day in 1847.
- Clara PIZEY was admitted to Brixton Grove House on this day in 1849.
- Louisa PIZEY was admitted to Brixton Grove House on this day in 1849.
- Selina PIZEY was admitted to Brixton Grove House on this day in 1849.
- Louisa ROOKE was admitted to Brixton Grove House on this day in 1849.
- Ann Sarah WELCH was admitted to Brixton Grove House on this day in 1849.
- Jane HALL was admitted to Brixton Grove House on this day in 1850.
- Eliza HOWARD was admitted to Brixton Grove House on this day in 1851.
- Louisa LOCKHART was admitted to Brixton Grove House on this day in 1851.
- William LOCKHART was admitted to Brixton Grove House on this day in 1851.
- Harriet PRIOR was admitted to Brixton Grove House on this day in 1851.
- Henry WEST was transferred from Brixton Grove House to Workhouse on this day in 1851.
Project status - May 2025
Recent additions to our archive include:
- Admission and discharge records from Newington St Mary, Clerkenwell Workhouse, and Southwark Christ Church workhouses
- Entries from Islington Infant Poor House mentioning Tooting
- Transcriptions of the inquests and trial
- Ongoing expansion of our searchable database
See our Analysis page for a deeper look at the stats
Chart 1. Pauper farm residents in the database, by gender