Victorian workhouses were intended as a deterrent for able-bodied poor people. Conditions were deliberately austere: minimal food, strict routines, and separate sleeping quarters. Families were often split; men, women, and children had different accommodations. Workhouses offered employment, but the work was hard, monotonous, and poorly paid. This system reflected societal belief that poverty was a moral failing rather than structural. Dickens and other reformers exposed abuses and conditions to push for change. Despite reforms, the stigma persisted, shaping social attitudes toward poverty. Workhouses became emblematic of state control over the poor.
Workhouses reflected societal approaches to poverty and morality.
It shows how policy and architecture reinforced class hierarchy and cultural beliefs.
Did you know workhouse children were sometimes assigned tedious tasks like crushing bones for fertilizer?
[British Library, britishlibrary.uk]