Union Workhouse, Chesterton

History of Union Workhouse, Chesterton

According to 1959 Royal Commission on Historical Monuments Survey of Cambridge the land for the workhouse was purchased in 1836 and built at a cost of £5,716 to a design by John Smith. At the time of the Royal Commission report significant parts of the main buildings survived and it is described as having a remarkable plan devised for the special purposes of the workhouse.

Plan of Chesterton Workhouse

Chesterton House of Correction
The House of Correction at Chesterton formed part of Cambridgeshire’s system for dealing with both poverty and disorder. Unlike parish workhouses, its primary purpose was disciplinary, accommodating vagrants, petty offenders and those considered idle or disorderly. It reflects an age when poverty was often viewed not simply as a social problem but also as a matter requiring correction through work, confinement and moral reform. The institution demonstrates the close relationship between criminal justice and poor relief in early modern Cambridgeshire.

Source: Michael J. Murphy, Poverty in Cambridgeshire.

In 1868 Edwin Bays (1843 – 1909) was the architect for the extensions to the workhouse.

See ‘In and Out of the Workhouse’ EARO 1978.