What was it like living in Victorian workhouses?

Answer 1

Answer

Frankly they were quite horrible, there was hardly any light in the rooms so the workers could not see what they were doing half of the time. Most of the workers were children and were treated as slaves. The 'masters' at each workhouse were allowed to whip the workers if they were not going quick enough. Basically the life in Victorian times were based around the workhouses' and the treatment within them. Even when it was Christmas they would still work they would be aloud to go to church and they would get a slightly bigger meal. The workhouse was a horrible place because they didn't give you much food. You also had to work 11-hour days non-stop sometimes even risking your life!

Answer 2

It was horrible in a Victorian workhouse especially the food.

Prior to the early 1900's life in the Workhouse was very hard. Around this time, Will Crooks MP who was once an inmate of the Poplar Workhouse himself as a child, an experience that he said was 'etched into his soul' along with his friend and Labour colleague, George Lansbury (Grandfather of the actress Angela Lansbury) fought to bring in much needed reforms to make life in the Workhouse more humane. In the book on his life called 'Where there's a Will, there's a way' it describes how he first entered the Poplar Workhouse as an adult after being elected one of the Poplar Guardians (Guardians were the people that ran the Workhouses). Crooks found inmates living in squalid conditions and even found people picking out small black specks from their 'Skilly' (Skilly was a watery/greasy type of oats that was the standard meal in the workhouse). The small black specks were rat droppings. Rats had free access to the oat bins and the staff were making no effort to remove the droppings before feeding the inmates. Some of the reforms he brought in were better food and better clothing.

Answer 3

just wanted to know what it looked like inside a Victorian workhouse

You would have to visit one to find out ! They look like prisons and I am sure that inside they were like that as well. Children were separated from their parents in some, families were split up....not nice

Answer 4

you can only live in one workhouse, but it was terrible for children as disabled people also had to work.

Answer 5

it was a horrible place for everyone who was there except the owners

Answer 6

It's filthy and horrible and loads of diseases inside of it ew... :(

Answer 7

well yes Victorian children work in workhouses and some have sex and get pregnant

Answer 8

what do workhouses look

like