Workhouse

Workhouses were public institutions established to provide relief for the poor under Britain’s Poor Law. The modern form emerged with the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, which created centralized workhouses run by boards of guardians. The system aimed to standardize relief, offer indoor support, and deter paupers from seeking aid outside the workhouse by making conditions there less eligible than the worst conditions outside the system.

Inside a workhouse, admission was arranged by local relief officers or unions. Inmates resided under strict, regulated rules and were assigned to work. People were typically divided by age and sex, and families were often kept separate. Able-bodied paupers performed compulsory labour, while the elderly, sick, and children received basic care. Meals, clothing, and accommodation were deliberately basic, and discipline was rigid.

The workhouse system became a focal point of controversy, criticism, and reform. While some institutions gradually improved in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, others remained austere and punitive in public perception. Workhouses also came to be used for a variety of institutional purposes, including hospitals and infirmaries, and they entered popular culture as symbols of harsh welfare policy.

The decline of the workhouse system began in the 20th century as welfare reforms reduced reliance on indoor relief. Following the Local Government Act of 1929 and the subsequent shift toward universal welfare provision, boards of guardians were replaced by local authorities. After the 1948 national welfare changes, the traditional workhouse system was effectively superseded; many buildings were repurposed as hospitals, housing, or other facilities, and the term fell from routine use.