Dorchester, Dorset: Workhouses and Alms Houses

The Workhouse

In Literature and Art

Alms Houses

Inscription

Map of Dorchester, 1771

Fanny Robin in Front of the Casterbridge Union
Helen Paterson Allingham illustration (1874)
 for Hardy's Far From The Madding Crowd

Hardy describes the South Street Alms House

"A wall bounded the site of Casterbridge Union-house, except along a portion of the end. Here a high gable stood prominent, and it was covered like the front with a mat of ivy. In this gable was no window, chimney, ornament, or protuberance of any kind. The single feature appertaining to it, beyond the expanse of dark green leaves, was a small door...Upon the whole, the door seemed to advertise itself as a species of Traitor's Gate translated to another sphere. That entry and exit hereby was only at rare intervals became apparent on noting that tufts of grass were allowed to flourish undisturbed in the chinks of the sill..."

Houseless and Hungry

Chelsea Workhouse: A Bible Reading (Our Poor), James Charles, 1877