For two centuries the shadow of the workhouse hung over Britain. The recourse of only the most desperate dark & terrible tales of malnutrition misery mistreatment & murder ran like wildfire through the poorer classes who lived in terror of being forced inside the institution's towering walls. This book contains 365 incredible tales of fires drownings explosions & disasters infamous scandals such as the Andover affair
- where inmates were forced to eat the bones they were supposed to be crushing to ward off starvation
- & sickening tales of abuse assault bodysnatching poisonings post mortems & murder. Accompanied by 70 rare & wonderful illustrations this book will thrill fascinate sadden & unnerve in equal measure. DID YOU KNOW? In the early hours of 31 August 1888 the mutilated body of Mary Ann Nichols
- the first generally accepted victim of Jack the Ripper
- was discovered in Buck's Row Whitechapel just a little way from the Whitechapel workhouse infirmary. Nichols aged forty-two at her death had been a regular habituee of London's workhouses. On 30 May 1896 at the age of seven future Hollywood star Charlie Chaplin entered the Newington workhouse in south London together with his mother Hannah & his older half-brother Sydney. On 19 March 1834 a revolt took place amongst the juvenile female paupers of St Margaret's workhouse Westminster. A young man named Speed appointed as their superintendent provoked their wrath by his alleged tyrannical behaviour. He was unmercifully thrashed by the girls who tore his clothes nearly off his back & beat him until his cries raised the alarm & the police were sent for to quell the disturbance.