Hard times: Investigating the archaeology of a 19th-century workhouse

This spring marked 300 years since the introduction of the 1723 Workhouse Test Act, often seen as the origin of the workhouse system in England and Wales. These institutions were designed as refuges for the destitute, but ultimately became a byword for cruelty and neglect. What can archaeology add to our understanding of the experiences of those who lived and worked in them? Carly Hilts reports on how recent excavations in London have illuminated one such site.

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Current Archaeology

December 7, 2023

When we hear the word ‘workhouse’, many of us will be immediately transported in our imaginations to the world of Charles Dickens; to dingy Victorian institutions, overcrowded and disease-ridden; to uncaring masters and matrons doling out harsh punishments; and to a starving scrap of a child holding out a bowl in the forlorn hope of a second serving of watery gruel. Nineteenth-century novelists and social reformers alike decried this system of ‘support’ for society’s most vulnerable members, and we have a wealth of written references, records, and reports to help build a vivid account of the conditions under which these infamous institutions operated. Was this situation always so b

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