Workhouses in Victorian England

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Workhouses in Victorian England
In the 17th and 18th centuries, the parish
workhouse in Britain was a place where - often in
return for board and lodging - employment was
provided for the destitute.
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Southwell Workhouse
See the following lists for the shocking number
of workhouses.
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• Workhouses
• Bermondsey Workhouse, Tanner Street 1888
• Bethnal Green Workhouse, Bishops Road 1888
• Brentford Union Workhouse, Union Lane 1888
• Bromley Workhouse, Love lane, off St Leonards
  Street 1888
• Camberwell Workhouse, Camberwell, CAMBERWELL
  1861
• Camberwell Workhouse, Havil Street 1888
• Camberwell Workhouse, Nazareth House, Gordon Road
  1888
• Chelsea Workhouse, Chelsea, CHELSEA 1861
• Chelsea Workhouse, Arthur Street 1888
• Christchurch Workhouse, Blackfriars Road,
  Christchurch, Southwark, ST SAVIOUR SOUTHWARK
  1881
• City of London Union Workhouse, part of, Bromley
  St Leonard, Bow, POPLAR 1861
• City of London Workhouse, part of, MILE END OLD
  TOWN 1861
• City Union Workhouse 1888
• Clerkenwell Workhouse, Farringdon Road 1888
• East London Union Workhouse, Hackney, HACKNEY
  1861
• Fulham Union Workhouse, Fulham, KENSINGTON 1861
  
• Fulham Workhouse, Hammersmith Road 1888
• Greenwich Workhouse, Woolwich Road 1888

• Lambeth Old Workhouse, Princes Road, Lambeth
  Church, LAMBETH 1881
• Lambeth Workhouse Industrial Schools, Norwood,
  LAMBETH 1861
• Lambeth Workhouse School, Elder Road, Norwood,
  LAMBETH 1881
• Lambeth Workhouse, LAMBETH 1861
• Lambeth Workhouse, Renfrew Road 1888
• Lambeth Workhouse, Renfrew Road, Lambeth Church,
  LAMBETH 1881
• Lewisham Workhouse, Lewisham Road 1888
• Limehouse Workhouse, Rope Makers Field 1888
• City of London Workhouse, Homerton, Cliften Road
  1888
• London Workhouse, Shadwell Road 1888
• Mile End Old Town Workhouse, MILE END OLD TOWN
  1861
• Mile End Old Town Workhouse, Bancroft Road 1888
  
• Newington Workhouse, St Peter Walworth, NEWINGTON
  1861
• Paddington WorkhoSt George's Hanover Square
  Workhouse, Mount Street, 1888
• St George's Workhouse, ST GEORGE IN THE EAST
  1861
• St George's-in-the-East Workhouse 1888
• St Giles Workhouse, St Giles South, ST GILES
  1861
• St Giles's St George's Workhouses, Endell
  Street 1888
• use, Harrow Road 1888

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• St George's Hanover Square Workhouse, Mount
  Street, 1888
• St George's Workhouse, ST GEORGE IN THE EAST
  1861
• Stepney Union Workhouse (commonly called the
  Children's Establishment), Limehouse, STEPNEY
  1861
• Stepney Workhouse, St Leonard Street 1888
• The Shoreditch Workhouse, Haggerstone West,
  SHOREDITCH 1861
• The Union Workhouse, York Street West, Ratcliff,
  STEPNEY 1861
• The Workhouse belonging to St Luke's Parish,
  Hoxton New Town, SHOREDITCH 1861
• The Workhouse, Rectory, MARYLEBONE 1861
• St Giles Workhouse, St Giles South, ST GILES
  1861
• St Giles's St George's Workhouses, Endell
  Street 1888
• St John's Hampstead Workhouse, New End 1888
• St Luke's Workhouse, Shepherdess Walk 1888
• St Mary Abbotts Workhouse, Kensington Town 1888
  
• St Marylebone Workhouse, Northumberland Street
  1888
• St Mary's Islington Workhouse, Upper Barnsbury
  Street 1888
• St Olave's Union Infirmary, Deptford Lower Road,
  S.E. London 1888
• St Olave's Union Workhouse, Parish Street, St
  John, Horseleydown, ST OLAVE SOUTHWARK 1881
• St Olave's Union Workhouse, St John Horeslydown,
  ST OLAVE SOUTHWARK 1861
• St Olave's Workhouse, Lower Road 1888

• Union Workhouse, Greenwich, GREENWICH 1861
• Union Workhouse, Lewisham Village, LEWISHAM
  1861
• Union Workhouse, Mile End New Town, WHITECHAPEL
  1861
• Union Workhouse, POPLAR 1861
• Wandsworth Clapham Union Workhouse, Battersea,
  WANDSWORTH 1861
• Wandsworth Clapham Workhouse, Usk Road 1888
• West Ham Union Workhouse, Union Road 1888
• Westminster Workhouse, Marloes Road 1888
• Westminster Workhouse, Poland Street 1888
• Westminster Workhouse, York Street, St Margaret,
  WESTMINSTER 1861
• Whitechapel Union Workhouse, Charles Street,
  WHITECHAPEL 1871
• Whitechapel Workhouse, South Grove 1888
• Woolwich Union Workhouse 1888
• Workhouse belonging to St George Hanover Square,
  Chelsea, CHELSEA 1861
• Workhouse Infirmary, Pleasant Place, Lambeth
  Church, LAMBETH 1881
• Workhouse, Borough Road, ST GEORGE SOUTHWARK
  1861
• Workhouse, Charing Cross, ST MARTIN IN THE FIELDS
  1861
• Workhouse, Golden Square, ST JAMES WESTMINSTER
  1861
• Workhouse, Green, BETHNAL GREEN 1861

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To understand Scrooge, we must understand just
where Scrooge thought the poor should go.
Are there no prisons? No workhouses?
6

In 1824, Dickens father was imprisoned in
Marshalsea debtor's prison. Dickens, age 12 was
sent to work in a boot blacking factory.
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What Was A Workhouse?

• A prison like place to house the poor and force
  them to work for their food.
• A place to discourage the poor from claiming poor
  relief.
• A place where conditions so harsh that people
  would try to manage outside, rather than enter
  them.
• Those who claimed poor relief and entered the
  workhouse were called 'inmates' -- a term also
  used for criminals who were in prison.

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Two Workhouse Designs
Cruciform
Hexagonal
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Design Purpose

• Designed to separate different groups.
• Families were split up!
• Prevented more children
• Turn the children into useful human beings
• --which, it was thought, their parents were not
• People in the same family might see each other
  during meals or in the chapel but they were not
  allowed to speak to each other.
• A well known story tells how a laborer gave
  notice to leave the workhouse with his wife
  children - only to be told "You cannot take your
  wife out. We buried her three weeks ago".

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Separation of Workhouse Inmates
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Separation of Workhouse Inmates
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Workhouse Classes

• Classification of Inmates
• After 1834, inmates were strictly segregated into
  7 classes
• Aged or infirm men.
• Able bodied men, and youths above 13.
• Youths and boys above seven years old and under
  13.
• Aged or infirm women
• Able-bodied women and girls above 16.
• Girls above seven years old and under 16.
• Children under 7 seven years of age.

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Entering the Workhouse

• You were stripped, searched, washed
• Had your hair cropped.
• Made to wear a prison-style uniform.
• Personal belongings were confiscated
• Women were at all times kept separate from the
  men, including their husbands.
• Children were kept separately from adults - even
  from their own parents.

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Childrens Uniforms
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Womens Uniform
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Workhouse Meals

• Until 1842
• all meals were taken in silence
• no cutlery was provided
• inmates had to use their fingers
• meals were kept dull, predictable tasteless.
• There were 6 official diets which were so meager
  that they were described as "a slow process of
  starvation".
• A typical meal was- BREAKFAST 6 oz bread DINNER
  4 oz bacon and 3 oz bread or potatoes SUPPER 6
  oz bread 2 oz cheese.
• The official ration in prisons was 292 ounces of
  food a week. The workhouse diet was between 137
  and 182 ounces a week only.

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Workhouse Diet
7 Ounces of Meat when dressed, without Bones, 2
Ounces of Butter,4 Ounces of Cheese,1 Pound of
Bread,3 Pints of Beer
The diet fed to workhouse inmates was often laid
down in meticulous detail. For example, the
workhouse rules for the parish of St John at
Hackney in the 1750s stipulated a daily allowance
of
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Workhouse Dining
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Workhouse Dining Hall
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A Day in the Workhouse
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Work in the Workhouse

• In rural areas, inmates were sometimes used for
  agricultural labor. Other more menial work
  included
• Stone-breaking the results being saleable for
  road-making

• Stone-breaking was a task often given to male
  inmates. It was physically demanding, the amount
  performed could be readily measured, and the
  results could be sold for road-mending.

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Work Cont.
Oakum-picking involved teasing out the fibres
from old hemp ropes the resulting material was
sold to the navy or other ship-builders it was
mixed with tar and used to seal the lining of
wooden ships.

• Oakum-picking

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Wood Chopping

• Wood
• Chopping

• Gypsum-crushing for use in plaster-making
• Corn-grinding heavy mill-stones were rotated
  by four or more men turning a capstan

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Discipline in the workhouse.
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Refactory Cell for Punishment
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Tour the Workhouse
Click the workhouse to enter.