As you will see from the maps, Blackwall buildings were adjacent to the Whitechapel Workhouse. There is an amazing website which deals with this aspect of history and I will not delve into it here. if you would like to explore the story of workhouses then please refer to www.workhouses.org.uk.However I would like to put in one quote which gives an idea of life in the workhouse. This is from the workhouse site.

The Whitechapel Union is a model workhouse ; that is to say, it is the Poor Law incarnate in stone and brick. The men are not allowed to smoke in it, not even when they are in their dotage; the young women never taste tea, and the old ones may not indulge in a cup during the long afternoons, only at half-past six o’clock morning and night, when they receive a small hunch of bread with butter scraped over the surface, and a mug of that beverage which is so dear to their hearts as well as their stomachs. The young people never go out, never see a visitor, and the old ones only get one holiday in the month. Then the aged paupers may be seen skipping like lambkins outside the doors of the Bastile, while they jabber to their friends and relations. A little gruel morning and night, meat twice a week, that is the food of the grown-up people, seasoned with hard work and prison discipline. Doubtless this Bastile offers no premium to idle and improvident habits ; but what shall we say of the woman, or man, maimed by misfortune, who must come there or die in the street? Why should old people be punished for their existence ?

Vagrants or "Casuals" on Thomas Street 1902 courtesy of Peter Higginbotham / www.workhouses.org.uk.

This shows casuals waiting on Thomas Street, 1902. From Peter’s site I quote “Vagrants or “casuals” were given overnight accommodation in return for a fixed amount of work the following morning. In later years, a two-night stay was required from casuals so that they could not leave without doing the required task of work, and so that they could make an early start after their second night to move on to another workhouse. The casual ward was fitted out with hooks and rails between which low hammocks were slung.” The main workhouse next to the Buildings was taken over by the London County Council in the 1930s and became St Peter’s Hospital. It closed in 1948 and was finally demolished in the 1960s and the site was used to build Lister House.

In the far distance is Kearley and Tonge’s new warehouse.  You can see the building was covered in scaffolding, which suggests it was being built. Blackwall Buildings is behind us and to the right. You can see the position more clearly in the pictures of the Casuals ward after it became St Peter’s Hospital which I have placed on the pictures page.