Vol. 1. Chapter 2 - Destitution

Chapter 2 - Destitution

18^th April 2013

The Social Worker from the Complex Care Team came to visit my mum. He broached the subject of the need for her to move into residential care.  She went ballistic and started shouting, “You’re not going to put me away in the workhouse”.

8^th February 1884. 

Skinny granny and her mum are declared “destitute” and are admitted into the Fulham Road Workhouse as paupers.

A newspaper  from August 1848 reported on its official opening

The Workhouse, the infirmary and receiving-houses of which are already erected, is to contain 450 inmates…..At five o'clock, the guardians, past and present, with the principal inhabitants of both parishes, to the number of nearly 70, dined together at the Albion Hall, Hammersmith, to celebrate the event; John Gunter, Esq., of Fulham, in the chair. The convivialities of the evening were kept up to a late hour.

Unfortunately, the inmates did not share in the “convivialities” and a report of the British Medical Journal notes that by the 1880's there were 2000 inmates. Alice and her mum had swapped the over crowding of The Devil Acre for the Fulham Palace Road Workhouse.

People ended-up in the workhouse for a variety of reasons. Usually, it was because they were too poor, old or ill to support themselves. This may have resulted from such things as a lack of work during periods of high unemployment, or someone having no family willing or able to provide care for them when they became elderly or sick.

THE STAFF

These are the Workhouse Staff who would have supervised Eliza and little Alice

George COLE	45	Master Of The Workhouse
William Hy. HALL	36	(Late Master)
Charlotte Ann HALL	26	Matron
Caroline DENHAM	37	Assistant Matron
Charles HOLLOWAY	29	Clerk
James DARLING	41	Yardsman
Thomas KNOWLES	35	Porter
William HARRIS	31	Superintendent Of Labour
Mary BIGGS	56	Attendant
Susannah HUMPHREY	51	Nurse
Jessie BRYANT	28	Cook (Dom)
Elizabeth ROWELL	31	Attendant
Jane DUNLEVY	26	Attendant
Mary Ann EDWARDS	68	Midwife
Julia ALLEN	37	Taskmistress
Margaret ROULSTON	40	Supintendent Of Laundry
John SELLICK	57	Engineer (Driver)
William SELLICK	20	Carpenter
Frances SELLICK	26	Dressmaker
Charlotte SELLICK	22	Milliner
Charles DYE	66	Smithy
William TARBET	76	Pantryman
John RILEY	68	Stoker
John WILKINS	70	Stoker
Charles CLARKE	62	Stoker
Elizabeth PAINE	70	Laundress
Sarah FRANEY	48	Servant

ADMISSION

Admission into the Workhouse was first of all by interview. Formal admission into the workhouse proper was authorised by the Board of Guardians at their weekly meetings. However, the workhouse Master could also interview anyone in urgent need of admission.

After having been examined by the medical officer. They would be striped and washed. Typical rules for washing inmates or “patients” as they were called were:

·       Every Patient to be bathed immediately after admission and once a week 
        afterwards.

·       In preparing the bath, the cold water is always to be turned on first.

·       The temperature of the water  must not be below 90°F(32°C) or above 98°F (36°) –
        The water temperature was less than body temperature

·       Every hot-water tap should be provided with a key which should be kept in the 
        permanent charge of an Officer of the Workhouse, and may be entrusted 
        temporarily to the person responsible for the bather, but no one else.

·       Under no circumstances whatever are two Patients to occupy the bath at the 
         same time

·       During the bathing of inmates the room is never to be left without a paid 
        Officer or Servant; at all other times the door is to remain locked and the 
        floor kept dry.

·       Under no pretence whatever is the Patient’s head to be put under water.

Having had their bath, Eliza and Alice would have been given a set of workhouse clothes. Their own clothes would be washed and disinfected and then put into store along with any other possessions they had and only returned to them when they left the workhouse.

Workhouse inmates were strictly segregated into seven classes and each class was given their own dietary menu.

1. Aged or infirm men.
2. Able bodied men, and youths above 13.
3. Youths and boys above seven years old and under 13.
4. Aged or infirm women
5. Able-bodied women and girls above 16.
6. Girls above seven years old and under 16.
7. Children under 7 seven years of age.

Each class had its own area of the workhouse. This meant that 11 year old Alice was taken away from her mother to a separate wing of the workhouse

LIVING CONDITIONS

Each dormitory had an open fireplace; a lavatory and water-closet in a recess or lobby; in some instances the latter served for two or three wards.

The British Medical Journal reports:

 “Thirty men had used one closet, in which there had been no water for more than a week, and which was in close proximity to their from a lavatory in a recess of the room was so offensive that we suspected a sewer-communication, and soon discovered that there was no trap; indeed it had been lost for some considerable time. Apart from this source of contamination of the ward, there were several cases with offensive discharges : one particularly, a case of cancer, which, no disinfectant being used, rendered the room almost unbearable to the other inmates."

DAILY ROUTINE

Eliza’s  Daily Routine would have been:

Get up		Breakfast.	Work.	Dinner.	Work	Supper.	Bed time.
6am.	6:30 – 7am		7am – 12noon	12noon – 1pm	1pm – 6pm	6pm to 7pm.	8pm

Eliza would have been given mostly domestic jobs to do such as cleaning, or helping in the kitchen or laundry. The financial records of Fulham Workhouse show that they dealt in Oakum. Oakum is old rope, sometimes tarred or knotted. These ropes had to be unpicked inch by inch by the inmates and a day's work would be to unravel 3 lbs. of rope. The Workhouse literally earned money for old rope

11 year old Alice’s daily routine would have been:

6.00-8.00	Rise, make beds, prayers, clean shoes, wash. Prayers and religious instruction.
8.00-9.00	Breakfast. Recreation.
9.00-11.30	Reading, spelling, tables, arithmetic.
11.30-12.30	Working in copy books. Dictation.
12.30-2.00	Dinner. Recreation.
2.00-5.00	Needlework, knitting and domestic employment.
5.00-6.00	Supper. Recreation.
6.00-8.00	Needlework, knitting & domestic employment.
8.00	Prayers. Retire to bed.

Half an hour after the workhouse bell was rung for rising, the Master or Matron performed a roll-call in each section of the workhouse. Communal prayers were read before breakfast and after supper every day.

There were strict Workhouse rules

THE RULES

Any pauper who shall neglect to observe such of the regulations herein contained as are applicable to and binding on him:-

• Or who shall make any noise when silence is ordered to be kept
• Or shall use obscene or profane language
• Or shall by word or deed insult or revile any person
• Or shall threaten to strike or to assault any person
• Or shall not duly cleanse his person
• Or shall refuse or neglect to work, after having been required to do so
• Or shall pretend sickness
• Or shall play at cards or other games of chance
• Or shall misbehave in going to, at, or returning from public worship out of the workhouse, or at prayers in the workhouse
• Or shall wilfully disobey any lawful order of any officer of the workhouse

SHALL BE DEEMED DISORDERLY

FOOD

The main constituent of the workhouse diet was bread. At breakfast it was supplemented by gruel or porridge — both made from water and oatmeal (or occasionally a mixture of flour and oatmeal). Workhouse broth was usually the water used for boiling the dinner meat, perhaps with a few onions or turnips added. Tea — often without milk — was often provided for the aged and infirm at breakfast, together with a small amount of butter. Supper was usually similar to breakfast.

The mid-day dinner was the meal that varied most, although on several days a week this could just be bread and cheese.

Gruel, to make one pint you need

Oatmeal, 2 oz; treacle, ½ oz; salt and sometimes allspice; water.

After just one week in the Fulham Road Workhouse, Eliza discharged herself and Alice. However, a week later, they were back inside. This time, Eliza was admitted straight into the infirmary.

Medical Care in the Workhouse

"The Fulham Union Infirmary was erected in St Dunstan's Road to the north of the workhouse to provide minimal medical care to the workhouse sick. It opened in 1884 with two doctors and 31 nurses to look after 486 patients, a large proportion (34%) of whom were chronically ill or senile. Leg ulcers were the predominant reason for admission for surgery, whereas medical admissions were for lung disease (bronchitis, pneumonia and TB). Medical cases outnumbered surgical ones threefold." 

The old and infirm are located in separate blocks; there were 60 in the male wards and 153 in the female. For these there are two nurses, with pauper help, and there is one nurse at night, also assisted by paupers. We were glad to learn from the master that the guardians contemplate increasing the staff, for, though the inmates are not sick, they require in many cases as much assistance as children, and it is useless to expect attendance from the pauper helps. There is no doubt that the cunning old hands levy contributions from the helpless before rendering service.

British Medical Journal

The Fulham Palace Road Workhouse became the site of The Charring Cross Hospital