History Main / OrphanageOfFear

** A variation is found in the haunting recollections of Poplar's elderly population about the Victorian-era workhouses. The 2013 Christmas special has Jenny helping an old woman find closure about the whereabouts of her children, who entered the workhouse with her in the early 1900's. She fondly remembers one daughter, and when asked about her, the only thing she says is that she "didn't thrive." When Jenny finds the records, "failure to thrive" is listed as that child's cause of death, aged about 9. There are three or four younger children listed, all of whom died of contagious disease or malnutrition. Jenny is able to find exactly where they were buried on the grounds of the workhouse, a great comfort for the woman.

* Creator/PhilipPullman's ''Spring-Heeled Jack'' includes the trio of orphaned protagonists escaping from one of these. The ones who run it pursue them relentlessly, because they don't get paid unless the orphanage is full to capacity.

* ''Thursday's Child'', by Creator/NoelStreatfeild. St. Luke's Orphanage is run by "Matron", who steals from the children to enrich herself and is physically abusive. After she leaves, it becomes an OrphanageOfLove, due to the influence of Lady Corkberry.
%%* ''Twin in the Tower''. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample)

* ''Literature/{{Momo}}'': Momo is an orphan who lives in a ruined amphitheater on the outskirts of the city. The neighboring families keep her supplied with food and other essentials, but she refuses to have anything to do with official social services because she previously lived in an orphanage that had bars on the windows and daily beatings, and doesn't want to end up in another.

** In early seasons, St. Gideons, a home for special needs children, is featured in several storylines; one episode has a family considering sending their newborn, born with spina bifida, there. The father asks Jacob, a young man with cerebral palsy who is a recurring character, about it. He says they live down the road from a biscuit factory. When the father expresses positive feelings for it, Jacob is quick to clarify: "we get the broken ones." Reggie, a cousin of Fred's with Downs syndrome, is nearly sent to a similar institution after the death of his mother, but the facility is in such poor condition that Fred can't bear to leave him there.
** Nurse Corrigan comes from a religious orphanage in Ireland, where it's implied she was at least emotionally neglected if nothing else. She had a TeenagePregnancy and the nuns at her orphanage arranged for the baby to be placed in an orphanage in London, under the guise that [[FamilyRelationshipSwitcheroo Collette and Nancy were sisters]]. Nancy removes Collette from that orphanage after finding bruises on her. With the help of Nonnatus House, Collette is placed in a foster home near where Nancy works, while she saves up money for them to live together.
** The Turners' adopted daughter, May, comes from a Chinese orphanage which is implied to be better than the family where she came from, but still overburdened and understaffed. She is sent to England with several other young Chinese children adopted by English parents. May originally had another adoptive family that could not take her right away, and so she is sent to an orphanage run by the same religious order the Nonnatus nuns are with. It's portrayed as a place where children are warehoused. Physically cared for, but not loved. One of the novice nuns connects with a special needs little boy who is left in his crib most of the day, as he needs individualized attention to interact with the world. May herself ends up in the care of the Turners because she isn't doing well in institutionalized care and the director of the orphanage is afraid for her health.
** A variation is found in the haunting recollections of Poplar's elderly population about the Victorian-era workhouses. The 2013 Christmas special has Jenny helping an old woman find closure about the whereabouts of her children, who entered the workhouse with her in the early 1900's. She fondly remembers one daughter, and when asked about her, the only thing she says is that she "didn't thrive." When Jenny finds the records, "failure to thrive" is listed as that child's cause of death, aged about 9. There are three or four younger children listed, all of whom died of contagious disease or malnutrition. Jenny is able to find exactly where they were buried on the grounds of the workhouse, a great comfort for the woman.

* In ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe'', Margo, Edith, and Agnes live in one of these. If they don't make their quota selling cookies they are banished to the "box of shame".

-->"Were they kind to you?" [=McLean=] regretted the question the minute it was asked.\\\

* ''Literature/TheKiteRunner'' has one of these, though it's more the fault of the setting (Taliban-occupied Afghanistan) than any malevolence on the part of the owners.

* In the ''Literature/AmericanGirlsSamantha'' stories, Samantha's friend Nelly gets sent to one of these, where any small gifts or luxuries, like sweets or gloves, are withheld and/or confiscated; the girls are trained to become servants and "know their place"; and punished for small offenses. Of course, she breaks out and is [[HappilyAdopted adopted by Sam's extraordinarily wealthy family]]. It's made even ''worse'' in the TV adaptation, in which the matron finds out that Nelly and her sisters escaped with Samantha and promptly steals money that was donated for the orphans and plans to pin the theft on the girls. Fortunately, Samantha's aunt and uncle don't believe a word of it.

* Though it varies by personal fanon, ''Manga/DeathNote'''s Wammy's House can qualify -- the place is basically set up to produce the ultimate TykeBomb, after all, which is bound to be an unpleasant process. ''LightNovel/{{Another Note}}'' tells us that [[DrivenToSuicide it doesn't work out so well for all of the kids]], but L, Near, Matt, and Mello all seem pretty content with their upbringing, and L's absolute trust toward Watari would imply that Wammy's is something of an OrphanageOfLove; however, all four of them have their [[LackOfEmpathy not-so]]-[[HotBlooded normal]] traits. Then we get the ones like [[DeathByOriginStory A]] and [[SerialKiller Beyond Birthday]]...

* ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts'' has Jack's orphanage. Jack was creepy ''before'' he got his hands on the Emigre Manuscript. Now he sees the kids as ingredients. Unfortunately for him, one of the kids sent to it is a friend of Halley's, and Halley gets Yuri and allies involved... If you visit the orphanage after the story events, you learn that it's now run by a woman who plans to make it an OrphanageOfLove.

* Though it varies by personal fanon, ''Manga/DeathNote'''s Wammy's House can qualify -- the place is basically set up to produce the ultimate TykeBomb, after all, which is bound to be an unpleasant process. ''LightNovel/{{Another Note}}'' tells us that [[DrivenToSuicide it doesn't work out so well for all of the kids]], but L, Near, Matt, and Mello all seem pretty content with their upbringing, and L's absolute trust toward Watari would imply that Wammy's is something of an OrphanageOfLove; however, all four of them have their [[AmbiguousDisorder not]]-[[LackOfEmpathy so]]-[[HotBlooded normal]] traits. Then we get the ones like [[DeathByOriginStory A]] and [[SerialKiller Beyond Birthday]]...

* ''Series/DarkMatter'': The Orphanage where Five grew up hasn't been described in any detail, but kids don't run away from such homes to try and survive alone on the streets at age 12 for no reason. And even without any conscious memories of the place, her reaction to the plan of having her sent to a group home after [[spoiler:the rest of the crew of the Raza is arrested and thrown into prison]] is basically: "I'd rather go to (adult, high security) prison instead."

* In ''Manga/ChainsawMan'', [[spoiler:LoserProtagonist Asa ended up in one of these with the caretaker [[KickTheDog murdering her cat]] out of jealousy.]]

* In the ''Literature/{{Spellsinger}}'' books, one city orphanage is considered a great place with well-behaved kids. Jon-Tom discovers that it is [[spoiler:an Orphanage of Fear with every child required to be "perfect". The food is great and healthy, however any misbehavior is whipped and all kids have their sexual organs removed because sex isn't "perfect".]]

* ''Literature/BrotherhoodOfTheRose'' by David Morrell. Although the protagonists aren't mistreated in their government-run orphanage, all the children are indoctrinated to become patriotic CannonFodder for the US military.

* "Thrift House", run by the corrupt and abusive Mrs. Spindletrap in ''The Silver Spoon of Solomon Snow'', by Kaye Umansky.
%%* ''Sparrows in the Scullery''. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample)

* In Benjamin Black's (a.k.a. John Banville's) novels about pathologist ''Quirke'', set in mid-twentieth-century Ireland, Quirke spent his childhood in Carricklea, a horribly abusive orphanage run by the Christian Brothers. TruthInTelevision, unfortunately, as the novels are responding to recent revelations about what such orphanages could be like.

* In Sam Gayton's ''Lilliput'', Finn was an orphan at one of these, ironically called "The House of Safekeeping". The clocks there were designed to run quickly during the orphans' free time, and slowly during their work time. Christmas Day was forty minutes long there.

* In ''Faraway Dream'', by Jane Flory, Seafarers Safe Harbor for Orphans is run by Mrs. Dempey, who is physically abusive and lazy.

* ''Brotherhood of the Rose'' by David Morrell. Although the protagonists aren't mistreated in their government-run orphanage, all the children are indoctrinated to become patriotic CannonFodder for the US military.

* Anaïs Nin describes one of these in her novella ''Children of the Albatross'', part of ''Cities of the Interior''. Djuna, a beautiful young woman with "enormous fairytale eyes", tells the story of how she grew up in one of these grim places. "The Watchman" was supposed to keep the girls within walls at night but would let them out for a few hours in return for sexual favors.

* In ''The Declaration'' by Gemma Malley, Surpluses, or children born to people taking the immortality drug, are put in these. They are often told they do not deserve to exist and have futures as servants. The main character, Anna, escapes with the help of a boy named Peter. They are allowed to stay out of the group home because [[spoiler:both Anna's parents died, and Peter's father died, and the only way to get out of the homes is if one person in your family dies. That way, you're not adding more people to the world.]]

* In ''Albertine and the House of the Thousand Wonders'' by Frank Reifenberg and Jan Strathmann, the [[SuperFunHappyThingOfDoom Children's Happiness Home]] where the heroine lives pretty much embodies the trope. Though the headmistress has her favorites, they aren't particularly happy either. The kids are forced to ''paint the lawn green'' to make the orphanage look at least halfway decent.

%%* In the film ''Courage Mountain'', the main character and her friends are sent to an Orphanage of Fear when their boarding school is closed down because of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample; elaborate how the orphanage is horrible.)
* ''The Day Will Come'' is about two brothers in the 1960's being placed in a boys' orphanage that also doubles as a boarding school. The headmaster and teachers are unsympathetic and beat the kids for almost anything, even yelling at the brothers and stuffing their faces into their food when they loudly cry at dinner after learning that their sick mother passed away. In the end, the younger brother is able to get a former teacher (who was fired for interfering in their beatings) to help him get the orphanage investigated by an inspector. Sadly BasedOnATrueStory, with Denmark having a history of abusive orphanages throughout the 1940s to the 1970s.

* ''WebAnimation/HelluvaBoss'': "Seeing Stars" portrays {{hellhound}} adoption centers like these in a flashback, mixed with PoundsAreAnimalPrisons. The pups are malnourished and deformed, the cells are filled with grime, and the social worker's dialog implies the pups are mostly sold as slaves or family pets, and she doesn't acknowledge pups being violent towards each other, even when one is threating his cellmate with a [[SavageSpikedWeapons bloody nail bat]] in front of her. [[spoiler:This where Blitzo found and adopted Loona, [[AdultAdoptee a month before she turned 18]].]]