What does Scandinavian Home mean? Late XIX, early XX century. Great Britain

Joseph Conrad, "The Nigger Of The "Narcissus": A Tale Of The Forecastle":

the two young Norwegians looked tidy, meek, and altogether of a promising material for the kind ladies who patronise the Scandinavian Home.

I've searched through various dictionaries and completed various google-searches but couldn't find the answer. Is it something like a brothel? Or maybe a community? It's the end of the XIX and the beginning of the XX century. Great Britain. The Norwegians are sailors back to Great Britain after a long trip.

Solution 1:

Robert Hampson, in his essay "Topographical Mysteries: Conrad and London" says that the reference is to, as Kate Bunting says, a hostel for sailors. These often had a moral or social purpose. A "temperance" home would be one where alcohol was not allowed.

Conrad's Cities: Essays for Hans Van Marle edited by Gene M. Moore

Port districts were places where a young sailor, far from home, would be exposed to moral risks - brothels, prostitutes, drinking and gambling establishments, dirty or unsanitary lodging houses sometimes run or used by criminals. One object of sailors' homes was to provide an alternative place of lodging to these, often where the sailor's native language would be spoken, and encourage wholesome activities. Sailors who had finished a voyage would often be "paid off", that is, given their wages for the whole voyage in one lump sum, and temptations or theft could make their money vanish or diminish, and they could get venereal diseases.