The Workhouses of East London: A Very Grim History Lesson

Walk around East London today and you'll find coffee shops, vintage shops, restaurants, expensive flats and some of the most desirable neighbourhoods in London. But underneath all that avocado toast and sourdough is a much tougher story.

Bromley-by-Bow's Stepney Union Workhouse

For hundreds of years, East London was home to some of London's poorest communities — and that meant it was also home to a network of workhouses. These were institutions designed to provide relief for people who were poor, homeless, elderly, sick or unable to support themselves. But the help came with some pretty serious conditions attached.

So, what actually was a workhouse?

The clue is rather unfortunately in the name.

A workhouse was a place where people who needed financial assistance from their parish could receive food, accommodation and basic care in return for work. Before the Victorian welfare state, there wasn't anything resembling today's benefits system, so if you had no money and nowhere to live, your local parish was often responsible for helping you.

That sounds reasonably helpful — until you discover what life inside could actually be like.

Workhouses were deliberately designed to be places people wouldn't necessarily want to enter. The philosophy was that poor relief shouldn't be too comfortable, otherwise people might supposedly choose the workhouse instead of finding employment. The result was an institution that could provide food and shelter, but often involved strict rules, hard work and separation of families.

East London had LOTS of them

Workhouses existed throughout London, but the rapidly growing East End had particular need for them.

In Bethnal Green, a workhouse existed as early as 1751. A much larger building was completed in 1766, designed to accommodate up to 400 people. By 1832, however, the situation had become dramatically overcrowded: more than 1,000 inmates were recorded, with some people reportedly sleeping five to a bed. (workhouses.org.uk)

That's not five people sharing a bedroom. That's five people sharing one bed.

The reason for the pressure was partly economic. Bethnal Green had a major silk-weaving industry, and when the trade suffered, wages fell and more people found themselves dependent on poor relief. In other words, a local economic downturn could very quickly become a humanitarian crisis.

Shoreditch: workhouse AND medical history

The Shoreditch workhouse on Kingsland Road has an especially interesting history.

An earlier workhouse at Hoxton was already operating by the 1730s, with inmates including adults and children being employed in tasks such as spinning wool and mop yarn. A new workhouse opened on Kingsland Road in 1777. (workhouses.org.uk)

And here's your fun history fact: one of the doctors associated with the Shoreditch workhouse was James Parkinson.

Yes — that Parkinson.

In 1813, Parkinson became parish surgeon and helped establish a separate fever ward for infectious patients. In 1817 he published his famous description of what became known as Parkinson's disease. So a place associated with poverty and hardship also played a small part in the history of modern medicine. 

Whitechapel wasn't exactly five-star accommodation

Whitechapel had its own workhouse from the early 18th century. A new building on Whitechapel Road began construction in 1768 and was eventually completed in 1812. At one point it could accommodate around 600 inmates, making it one of the largest workhouses in the country. (workhouses.org.uk)

There was also a workhouse in nearby Spitalfields, where poor people could be employed in trades including silk-related work.

The connection between poverty and London's textile industries is important. East London wasn't simply a place where poor people happened to live — many people were working incredibly hard in low-paid industries and could still end up needing assistance.

Poplar and the “labour test”

Over in Poplar, the workhouse dates back to at least 1735. As the docks expanded and the population grew, the workhouse expanded too. By the 19th century it included accommodation, workshops, children's facilities and infirm wards. (workhouses.org.uk)

Poplar later became famous for an experiment in which able-bodied men were subjected to a “labour test”. Instead of simply receiving assistance, men were expected to undertake demanding physical work in exchange for relief.

The work could be extremely repetitive and sometimes deliberately arduous. One of the schemes involved men working land with spades where a much smaller number of workers would normally have been able to do the job using a plough.

Basically: dig this field. Now dig it again. And again.

The workhouse wasn't just for “the unemployed”

One of the biggest misconceptions about workhouses is that everyone inside was simply unemployed.

In reality, people entered workhouses for many different reasons. They included elderly people, children, sick people, people with disabilities, widows, families experiencing extreme poverty and people who had temporarily fallen on hard times.

Conditions varied enormously between institutions and over time, but overcrowding and poor sanitation were recurring problems. In 1866, an investigation into Bethnal Green's workhouse found serious problems with ventilation, washing facilities and overcrowding. (workhouses.org.uk)

Look at an old map and the story gets even stranger

One of the best ways to understand this history is to look at old maps of East London.

The streets around Bethnal Green, Shoreditch, Whitechapel, Poplar and Victoria Park may look completely different today, but historic maps reveal just how densely built-up the area was becoming — and where institutions such as workhouses, hospitals, markets and factories fitted into the landscape.

That's one of the reasons we love old maps at Planet Patrol. Our Shoreditch map print and Columbia Road vintage map are inspired by historic London cartography, turning the streets of East London into pieces of artwork you can actually explore.

Our Victoria Park map print is another great example. The park became an important amenity for East London's working population during the 19th century and was nicknamed the “People's Park” — a reminder that the history of these neighbourhoods isn't just about poverty, but also about communities, protest, recreation and social change. (planetpatrolstudio)

What happened to the workhouses?

The workhouse system didn't disappear overnight, but its role gradually changed as ideas about poverty, healthcare and social welfare developed.

Many former workhouse sites eventually became hospitals, schools or other public institutions. The East London workhouse at Homerton, for example, was substantially expanded with an infirmary and later became part of the hospital system. The original workhouse site was eventually incorporated into what became Homerton Hospital. (workhouses.org.uk)

And that is perhaps the strangest thing about this history.

You can walk through East London today without realising that beneath the cafés, flats and busy streets are the footprints of institutions that tell us an enormous amount about how Victorian society treated poverty.

The workhouse has largely disappeared. The streets remain. The map remembers.