The English Poor Laws were a system of poor relief in England and Wales that developed out of the codification of late-medieval and Tudor-era laws in 1587–1598. The system continued until the modern welfare state emerged after the Second World War.
In Britain and Ireland, a workhouse was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses. The earliest known use of the term workhouse is from 1631, in an account by the mayor of Abingdon reporting that "we have erected wthn [sic] our borough a workhouse to set poorer people to work".
The Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 (PLAA) known widely as the New Poor Law, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed by the Whig government of Earl Grey denying the right of the poor to subsistence. It completely replaced earlier legislation based on the Poor Relief Act 1601 and attempted to fundamentally change the poverty relief system in England and Wales. It resulted from the 1832 Royal Commission into the Operation of the Poor Laws, which included Edwin Chadwick, John Bird Sumner and Nassau William Senior. Chadwick was dissatisfied with the law that resulted from his report. The Act was passed two years after the Representation of the People Act 1832 which extended the franchise to middle-class men. Some historians have argued that this was a major factor in the PLAA being passed.
A poor law union was a geographical territory, and early local government unit, in Great Britain and Ireland.
North Manchester General Hospital (NMGH) is a large NHS hospital in Crumpsall, North Manchester, England. It is operated by Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. There is an accident and emergency unit, together with a maternity unit, high dependency unit and a mental health wing. A plan to rebuild the hospital was announced by Boris Johnson in the 2019 General Election campaign, and in November 2020 a £54 million funding bid for improvement works was made by the Trust, Manchester City Council, and Manchester Health and Care Commissioning.
The Andover workhouse scandal of the mid-1840s exposed serious defects in the administration of the English 'New Poor Law'. It led to significant changes in its central supervision and to increased parliamentary scrutiny. The scandal began with the revelation in August 1845 that inmates of the workhouse in Andover, Hampshire, England were driven by hunger to eat the marrow and gristle from bones which they were to crush to make fertilizer. The inmates' rations set by the local Poor Law guardians were less than the subsistence diet decreed by the central Poor Law Commission (PLC), and the master of the workhouse was diverting some of the funds, or the rations, for private gain. The guardians were loath to lose the services of the master, despite this and despite allegations of the master's drunkenness on duty and sexual abuse of female inmates. The commission eventually exercised its power to order dismissal of the master, after ordering two enquiries by an assistant-commissioner subject to a conflict of interest; the conduct of the second led to more public inquiry and drew criticism.
Withington Community Hospital is a hospital in south Manchester, England, managed by the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust.
The Metropolitan Asylums Board (MAB) was established under Poor Law legislation to deal with London's sick and poor. It was established by the Metropolitan Poor Act 1867 and dissolved in 1930, when its functions were transferred to the London County Council.
St Olave's Hospital was a general hospital serving the Rotherhithe area of London until its closure in 1985.
George Wilkinson, FRIBA was an English architect, who practised largely in Ireland. He was born at Witney, Oxfordshire in 1814. He was the elder brother of the architect William Wilkinson (1819–1901), who practised in Oxford.
In England, social care is defined as the provision of social work, personal care, protection or social support services to children or adults in need or at risk, or adults with needs arising from illness, disability, old age or poverty. The main legal definitions flow from the National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990, with other provisions covering disability and responsibilities to informal carers. That provision may have one or more of the following aims: to protect people who use care services from abuse or neglect, to prevent deterioration of or promote physical or mental health, to promote independence and social inclusion, to improve opportunities and life chances, to strengthen families and to protect human rights in relation to people's social needs.
The Workhouse Visiting Society was an organisation set up in 1858 and existed "to improve moral and spiritual improvement of workhouse inmates" in England and Wales. The group was set up by Louisa Twining of the Twinings tea family. It began as a sub-committee of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science. It was disbanded in 1865.
Louisa Twinning was an English philanthropic worker who devoted herself to issues and tasks related to the English Poor Law. Her family owned the famous Twinings tea business on the Strand, which is a renowned business nowadays. In the early part of her adult life, Louisa was an artist and art historian. In her 30s she started work on projects related to the Poor Law which she followed for the rest of her life. She helped to establish a home for workhouse girls and a number of societies and associations related to workhouses and infirmaries. She also served as a Poor Law guardian and was president of the Women's Local Government Society.
The Liberty of Glasshouse Yard was an extra-parochial liberty adjacent to the City of London. The liberty took its name from a glass manufacturing works established there. The area now forms part of the London Borough of Islington.
Joseph Rogers (1821–1889) was an English physician and campaigning medical officer.
St Alfege's Hospital was a hospital that operated in the Maze Hill area of east Greenwich in southeast London. It operated as the Greenwich Union Infirmary from 1874 to 1929. It was briefly known as the Greenwich and Deptford Hospital before becoming St Alfege's Hospital in 1931. It was then superseded by Greenwich District Hospital in 1968.
Brownlow Hill infirmary was a large workhouse infirmary in Liverpool, notable for its role in advancing training of nurses. The workhouse was demolished in 1931, and the site is now occupied by Liverpool's Catholic cathedral.
The Association for the Improvement of the Infirmaries of London Workhouses was established on 3 March 1866 at a public meeting organised by Joseph Rogers, and Drs. Hart, Anstie and Carr of the Lancet. It was chaired by Henry Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon. Charles Dickens and John Stuart Mill were present. It campaigned for the provision of six Poor Law hospitals in London of one thousand beds each, with trained nurses, resident medical officers, and medicines financed from the rates. Carnarvon denounced the dreadful and disgraceful conditions in workhouse infirmaries and the guardians responsible for them. He helped to pass the Poor Law Amendment Act 1867.
The Poor Law Medical Officers Association was formed in 1868 by a merger of the Poor Law Medical Reform Association and the Association of Metropolitan Workhouse Medical Officers.
Workhouse infirmaries were established in the nineteenth century in England. They developed from the Workhouse and were run under the Poor law regime.
