Old Map of London (Cassell's) Central circa 1863

Old map of central London first published circa 1863, republished 2017.

Prominent buildings include the British Museum, the Foundling Hospital, Charter House, St Paul's Cathedral, and Somerset House. Four bridges - Waterloo, Blackfriars, Southwark, and London bridge - are all illustrated on the River Thames.

When this map was published:

At the time these maps were published in 1863, workhouses could be considered the only form of welfare state for the capitals poor citizens. A number of factors contributed to a person’s need for the workhouse - uneducated men unable to find employment elsewhere, unmarried mothers, people with disabilities, or orphans without parental provisions, for example. Each workhouse provided shelter, food, and uniformed clothing for the inmates in return for work; domestic chores for women - cooking, laundry, and sewing, and physical labour for men - stone breaking, for example. Minimal education was provided for children over the age of six. Prior to the mid 1800’s, conditions were deliberately hard to deter people from relying on them - conditions were so tough that it was generally a last resort even for the destitute. Medical provisions were dire, and infirmaries were often staffed by uneducated nurses with minimal access to medication. Lack of food, neglect, and a system which was often corrupt, all led to the introduction of the ‘Metropolitan Poor Act’ of 1867 which introduced drastic changes for the care of London’s poor. Vagrants, beggars, and street prostitution were all rife.

Prior to London’s rapid expansion in the 19th century, workhouses were established and managed by a parish. In 17th and 18th century England, land owners and wealthy people were expected to provide for their own poor, before official division of land and boundaries were introduced and responsibilities were passed increasingly from the Lord of the manor, to the parishes rector. Often the workhouse would be the second most important building in a parish, after the church. As the population expanded the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1866 declared that all areas levied a separate rate to that of the church, and civil parishes, a form of local government, were formed to control and manage the workhouses and inmates. The church rate was ceased to be levied in many parishes and became voluntary in 1868.

The Metropolitan Poor Act of 1867 stated the need for the ‘establishment in the Metropolis of Asylums for the sick, insane, and other classes of the poor and of dispensaries; and for the distribution over the Metropolis of portions of the charge for Poor Relief.’ Essentially, combining the common poor fund on a small local level, to one general administrative governing body that would cover the cost of drugs, and the wages of the poor relief officers for example, on a larger scale across London. The workhouse system was abolished in the UK in 1930 and the NHS was introduced in 1948.