The Victorian Poor Law and Life in the Workhouse

[Victorian Web Home —> Political History —> Social History —> Economics —> Race and Class —> Workhouses and the Poor law]

General

• Introduction
• Primary Sources (34 items)
• Individuals (12 items)

Historical Context, 1600-1860

• The Elizabethan Poor Law (1601)
• The Settlement Acts (1662)
• Knatchbull's Act (1723) — the Workhouse Test Act
• Gilbert's Act (1782)
• The Speenhamland System (1795)
• Changing attitudes towards poverty after 1815
• The Sturges-Bourne Acts (1818-9)
• The Royal Commission into the operation of the Poor Laws (1832)
• The Poor Law Commission
• The Royal Commission: members
• The implementation of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act
• Workhouse officers
• The workhouse
  • Rotherham
  • Southwell
  • St. Pancras

Opposition and Protest

• The Anti-Poor Law Movement
• Attack on the Workhouse at Stockport, 1842

The Poorlaw and Workhouses in Victorian Literature and the Visual Arts

• The Architecture of the Workhouse
• Clothing in the Workhouse
• Contemporary depictions of the Workhouse
• The Poorlaw and Workhouses in Victorian Literature (7 items)

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Last modified 5 October 2006