The parish of St James Piccadilly erected a workhouse on Poland Street in 1725 for the able-bodied poor. This was taken over by the newly-formed Westminster Union in 1868. The workhouse closed in or shortly after 1913.
In 1914 the site was used for housing wartime refugees - 200 Russian Jews, mostly from Antwerp. It became the Poland Street Institute for Jews. 1925 much of the site was reconstructed as a garage, but not the western section where the plaque is found.
More information at Workhouses - St James's which supplies our image of the workhouse in 1809.
