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Workhouse Addresses - Contributions Wanted!

In 1904, the Registrar General advised local registration officers that where a child was born in the workhouse, there should be no longer be any indication of this on the child's birth certificate. Instead, the place of birth was to be recorded as a euphemistic street address. For example, births at Liverpool Workhouse were now recorded as having taken place at 144A Brownlow Hill — no such street address actually existed. Similarly, Nottingham Workhouse used an address of 700 Hucknall Road for this purpose. The same practice was later also adopted for the death certificates of those who died in the workhouse. Often, only local knowledge will reveal that an ordinary-looking address was actually the workhouse.

If you have discovered (e.g. from a post-1904 birth or death certificate) the pseudonymous address of any workhouse, please get in touch to add the details to the collection below. Please include the complete address (e.g. '22 High Street, Upper Ramsgate' rather than just the street bit e.g. '22 High Street'). Thank you!

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