The Victorian Workhouse

Workhouses were first build in 1834, 3 years after Queen Victoria took the throne. The Poor Law Amendent Act was passed resulting many workhouses to be built to hold poor people that will be subjected to situations so horrible that only the true poor will seek refuge there. At that time, the concept of " poverty" was not well understood by the english majority. People thought others were poor because they were lazy and they called them " underserving people" The situation started to change after 1901 when people reapplied how bad the condition is in the workhouses and many workhouses became hospitals later on. AFter the creation of the Poor Law Unions in 1834, each union was obliged to build a workhouse. The conditions, as stated, was terrible. It was almost like a prison with bare walls, hard bed, s and little foods. Family members were spilt up and in many ways, it is like a concentration camp. Many died of sickness and overload of work in the workhouses and never made it out, it was a place as hellish as hell itself. People who were sick and poor from the start would be treated better as the " deserving poor" while the rest were subject to terrible conditions. IN a Christmas Carol when Scrooge stated things about the workhouses , he obviously does not understand the conditions there. If he did, he would know it is improper to suggest such a thing. He would realize that people are poor not because they are lazy.