A poorhouse or workhouse is a government-run facility to support and provide housing for the dependent or needy.
People queuing at S. Marylebone workhouse circa 1900
Frederick County Poor Farm in Virginia, United States
Women and children in St. Louis Poor House, 1904
Male Pauper Barracks in St. Louis Poor House,1904
In Britain and Ireland, a workhouse was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses. The earliest known use of the term workhouse is from 1631, in an account by the mayor of Abingdon reporting that "we have erected wthn [sic] our borough a workhouse to set poorer people to work".
Former workhouse in Nantwich, dating from 1780
The 'Red House' at Framlingham Castle in Suffolk was founded as a workhouse in 1664.
"The workroom at St James's workhouse", from The Microcosm of London (1808)
Former Cleveland Street workhouse, London W1, photographed in 1930. It later became part of the Middlesex Hospital.