The Ponton Trust: A History

Many were found in rough conditions, overrun with vermin, sleeping in the environs of Waverley Station, in archways, and elsewhere, such as their favoured overnight spots on manure boats at the terminus of the Union Canal. The creation of the home was supported by the ‘great and the good’ of the city in the mid 1800s, and over 300 boys had been supported with basic accommodation, education and rudimentary employment support in the first few years of its existence.

Industrial Ragged Schools© City of Edinburgh Libraries, reproduced by kind permission.

Stories of some of the early residents are held in the Edinburgh City Libraries Archive, and a picture and story extract of one, Levi Prinski, is shown below.

Levi Prinski and a portion of his recorded personal history.© City of Edinburgh Libraries, reproduced by kind permission.

1 Ponton Street

In later years, a bespoke boys home, Ponton House, was built at 1 Ponton Street, Fountainbridge, in the Tollcross area of the city. Designed by the architect Frank W. Simon, it was a symmetrical stone building of several storeys, with mullioned windows and Scots Baronial corner turrets. The building housed what was by then named the Edinburgh Home for Working Lads (1897) and provided dormitory accommodation, in four tier bunks, and basic education and leisure facilities.

Homeless boys, from orphanages, or those otherwise deprived of a family environment from the Edinburgh and Lothians area were provided with accommodation and links to apprenticeships and employment. The home was located in what was then a core industrial area of the city, with tanneries, breweries and slaughterhouses nearby. This allowed residents to gain local apprenticeships in a variety of trades while living in safe accommodation which included educational support and some leisure opportunities. In its heyday 85 boys were in residence, the largest provision of its kind in Scotland.

The main part of the original building still exists, in use as housing association offices (see picture) although an earlier large brick extension to the rear was demolished in 1982, to make way for a health centre. The window arch motif in the building lives on in The Ponton Trust’s logo, implying shelter and support for the vulnerable.

Ponton House, once surrounded by warehouses and building around the canal basin, now overlooked by the Scottish Widows offices.

Changing Times

In 1949 the accommodation was upgraded, to plans produced by Sir Basil Spence. Old dormitories were replaced by bedrooms, and shower facilities, a quiet room and a library were provided.

However, this type of accommodation also became unfit for purpose in due course, and the neighbourhood and function of the Tollcross inevitably changed in the 1960s. The organisation moved to new premises in Magdala Crescent in 1962, where a smaller hostel operated for approximately 15 years, after which it closed and the assets transferred to create an endowment fund which is now represented by the present Trust.

The Trust's objectives remain those of meeting the needs of disadvantaged young people, attacking poverty and deprivation in its current manifestations in the Edinburgh and Lothians area. A proportion of the Trust's income every year is still directed to providing cash grants to needful individuals, in addition to the Trust's wider programme of project funding.