Building    From 1775 

Cleveland Street Workhouse

Categories: Medicine, Social Welfare

Created with an Act of Parliament in 1775, initially for the parish of St Paul in Covent Garden, this is the most intact example of an 18th century workhouse institution left standing in London. Joseph Rogers was appointed to the post of Medical Officer in 1856 and remained for thirty years. The name changes of the building over the years briefly summarise its history: St Paul Covent Garden Workhouse or simply Covent Garden Workhouse; Strand Union Workhouse; Central London Sick Asylum; Cleveland Street Infirmary; Middlesex Hospital Annexe; Middlesex Hospital Outpatient Department. At this point, 2008, it was scheduled for demolition but a spirited campaign, with some help from Charles Dickens, got it it listed in 2011 and it was saved. The picture source website is an invaluable resource.

2017: Now the Nightingale wards at the back and the burial ground, used for the paupers, are at risk from the developers. Read about one burial there, of an "Italian boy" who was murdered by "body-snatchers" so they could sell his body: An East End Murder & A West End Grave. And Florence Nightingale's connection is detailed here. We hope Camden does the right thing and protects this historic fabric.

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Cleveland Street Workhouse

Commemorated ati

Charles Dickens - W1

Unveiled by Lucinda Dickens Hawksley.  Behind this plaque is an interesting d...

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Other Subjects

Finsen light cure

Finsen light cure

The Faroese/Icelandic physician, Niels Ryberg Finsen, (1860 - 1904) won a Nobel Prize for inventing this while working in Denmark.  After a time it was found to be dangerous rather than healing.

Concept, Medicine, Denmark, Iceland / Faroe Islands

1 memorial
Comte Jacques Jean Marie Rogge

Comte Jacques Jean Marie Rogge

He was born on 2 May 1942 in Ghent, Belgium. Elected President of the International Olympic Committee in 2001 and served until 2013 when he was made the IOC's Honorary President, a lifetime positio...

Person, Medicine, Sport / Games, Belgium

1 memorial
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Obstetric Hospital

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Obstetric Hospital

The hospital's founder was Dr Elizabeth Garrett Anderson. This hospital provides women-centred services including the right of a woman to be treated by a female doctor.

Building, Medicine

2 memorials
Infants Hospital

Infants Hospital

From the always useful Lost Hospitals of London: "The St Francis Hospital for Infants was founded in a small house in Hampstead {6 Denning Road} in 1903 by Helen Levis, {first} wife of the industri...

Group, Children, Medicine

1 memorial