The warehouse for homeless children, now known as Highbury’s Warehouse was founded in the year 2287 when Highbury took over the leadership at 16 years old. However, the warehouse was originally founded as a child only shelter in 2241 by Jack Hemming and his younger siblings.
It was a tough time financially for people living in Britain, especially if you were working class. Over the course of a few years, millions of people lost their job, home and security in an economic downturn that persists to this day. Previously prosperous centres like the Camden Industrial Estate were closing due to bankruptcy, and the inability to sell them on or open them up to business meant they often went abandoned. Ownership of these lots was hard to trace, and eventually the sites started to attract squatters and homeless people from their local regions.
Camden Industrial Estate was no exception. Reports at the time suggest up to 500 people were living on the estate within the first year of its closure. 2000 people within two years. Jack Hemming and his three younger siblings were among those seeking shelter and started living there in 2237 when Jack was 13.
Not much is known about what happened to Jack and his family between 2237 and 2241 at the warehouse. There are rumours that have been passed down by children over the decades, however, these are often contradictory and unreliable, often developing into stories designed to teach lessons to younger children.
More is known around the year 2241 and the events that preceded the formation of the warehouse into a children only shelter. This is due to Jack writing down the events on scraps of paper as a makeshift journal.
Sometime around early 2241 one of Jack’s twin sisters was killed in an intoxicated rage by a homeless man who also lived in the area close to the family. It is not known why he killed her.
As a result of his sister’s death, Jack cleared the immediate area around the rest of his family from any adults. In some cases, he bribed them with alcohol, others he would attack and destroy their stuff until they moved on. If anyone tried to settle back in, he would ensure they didn’t.
Once word got out that there was a kid attacking all the adults in the area adults started to avoid it, but children would come in, gingerly at first, but soon realising it safer to be amongst other children.
The warehouse soon became known as Hemming’s Warehouse.
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