BRIEF HISTORY DURING THE SNOW ERA (1813-58)

The workhouses were private or government-funded homes for the unemployed, poor and disabled. If private, the administration was often church-related. Parishes, the governing subdivisions in London, had historically been responsible for law and order and for the care of the aged, sick, disabled, and unemployed.  From 1722, parishes were permitted to build workhouses.  The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 solidified the role of workhouses, mandating that there should be no relief for poverty or unemployment outside the workhouse.  All who wanted aid had to live in a workhouse.  Since many paupers were also sick or disabled, infirmaries were added to workhouses, including isolation wards and fever wings.

Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2000.

             Porter R. London, A Social History, 1994.