Chelsea in the olden & present times / by George Bryan.

  • Bryan, George
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Chelsea in the olden & present times / by George Bryan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    162/240 (page 150)
    CHELSEA WORKHOUSE, &C. THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS. These schools are situated at the east side of the Cemetery. The pointed style was adopted on account of the contiguity of the building to the Parish Church. It consists of a centre, with low wings. The wings are occupied by the schools, and the centre as residences intended for the master and mistress; a large pointed arch connects the two divisions. The first stone was laid on the iSthofJune, 1824, by the Hon. and Rev. Dr. Wellesley, rector, with the customary formalities, at which there were present the late Rev. Henry Blunt, and several other clergymen, besides a vast number of th.e parishioners, including many ladies. In 1826 the entire building was finished, and the children were admitted. CHELSEA WORKHOUSE. Before the year 1723 there were no workhouses in England. It was the custom to relieve the able-bodied at their own dwelling places, and the aged and infirm were, in many cases, supported by the alms given at the church. In 1727, it was “ agreed that the churchwardens should be empowered to take, with all convenient speed, a proper house upon lease, in the name of the parish, for the use of the poor.” In 1733 it was resolved, at a vestry, “ That a committee be appointed to find out the most proper method to procure a workhouse for the poor, and an additional burial ground.” The result was that Sir Hans Sloane gave the present ground for botp. purposes, and the first erection of the workhouse took place about 1737. The building, at the early part of this century, contained but few dwelling rooms, besides those occupied by the master and mistress. It had two wings, however, the one to the south- west was built in 1792, and the south-east wing in 1797. The whole did not occupy mucli space. There was a garden, tastefully laid out, with a neat box-edging around each compartment.* An aged inmate was the gardener, and he took great delight in • Tho Writer’s father was one of the two Overseers of the Poor in 1806.