Workhouse

Workhouse, institution that provided basic sustenance for the very poor, infirm, and aged, often in return for some unpaid work. Workhouses existed in Britain, Europe, and colonial America from the 17th century, but were most notorious in Victorian Britain. Workhouses were first established in England during the Elizabethan era, a time when the ruling classes were more concerned about the disruptive social effects of vagrancy than administering charitable welfare. The Poor Law of 1601 assigned responsibility for the poor to local parishes, who elected overseers to provide relief for the sick and work for the poor in workhouses. Through the 17th and 18th centuries, poverty was primarily a rural problem, an effect of bad harvests and agricultural depressions, and parishes tended to administer either outdoor relief or indoor relief in workhouses in ways that were appropriate to local conditions.

However, over the period the cost of poor relief increased, and the 1662 Act of Settlement enabled the overseers to expel any poor not born in the parish where they sought relief. By 1760 the cost of poor relief had risen further, as the population increased and real wages fell. During the agricultural depression of 1795, magistrates meeting at Speenhamland in Berkshire, fearing riots, decided to administer outdoor relief to agricultural labourers and payments were made on a scale reflecting the price of bread. This became known as the Speenhamland System and led to a trend of other parishes administering outdoor relief to supplement low wages. The Speenhamland System aroused great controversy: it was argued that outdoor relief was economically inefficient and even encouraged pauperism, since the largest families received the highest payments.

In addition to rising costs, the Utilitarian philosophy of John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham and the economic theories of Thomas Malthus and Samuel Smiles influenced political thought. Government attitudes towards poverty hardened and were subsequently embodied in the 1834 Poor Law. Its aim was to reduce poor rates by abolishing outdoor relief to those active but poor persons and to deter those capable of work from entering the workhouse, through the implementation of a harsh regime.

The 1834 Poor Law established a central Poor Law Commission based at Somerset House, with three Commissioners, and with Edwin Chadwick as its first Secretary. Local parishes were combined into larger Unions, with workhouses run by Guardians under the authority of a more centralized administration. Conditions varied but were generally harsh and punitive. On entering the workhouse an individual lost all voting rights and was subject to a regime of meagre food and irksome work such as stone-breaking. In a notorious case of 1846, a select committee confirmed that inmates at the Andover Workhouse had been reduced by hunger to gnawing the rotting bones they had been set to pound. Workhouses subsequently became known as “bastilles” and popular opinion, influenced by the novels of Charles Dickens and sensational press reports, soon viewed them as places of oppression.

Gradually conditions improved, as the middle class became more sympathetic towards workhouse inmates and the working class campaigned for political, economic, and social equality. In 1858 Louisa Twining set up a visiting society, and books and toys for workhouse orphans were provided by charity. Also, the election of women as Guardians from the 1870s relaxed discipline and led to the placement of orphans in smaller institutions or with foster parents. Working-class Guardians, such as George Lansbury, concentrated on undermining the “workhouse test”. By the end of the 19th century, the categories of poor had widened and workhouses were more specialized institutions, serving the functions of hospitals and asylums.

The Victorian workhouse was established to reduce rural pauperism through deterrent conditions and the teaching of self-reliance and thrifty habits, but it was virtually obsolete at its creation. Even in 1834 rural poverty was less significant than the effects of trade and industrial depressions. The number of inmates rose steadily, from 167,740 (1875-1884) to 209,308 (1895-1904) and the realization that unemployment was an effect of an industrial economy rather than an individual failing reduced the moral stigma of poverty. This led to the Royal Commission of 1905, which advised legislation to reform the 1834 Poor Law. In 1908 the government approved non-contributory pensions for people over 70 and the National Insurance Act (1911) enabled workers to insure themselves against periods of unemployment and sickness. Although the Local Government Act (1929) formally ended the workhouse system, it was important as an embryonic social service. By the time of its abolition it had begun to offer a higher standard of care than many people could independently afford, and whatever its limitations it was the ancestor of many welfare state institutions.