This engraving from the 1830s shows the Town's Hospital and Poorhouse, built in 1733 on Great Clyde Street on the edge of Glasgow Green. The Hospital contained an infirmary, a workhouse, a home for the aged infirm and for orphans, and an asylum. It accommodated over 500 inmates by 1851, who carried out weaving, spinning, knitting tailoring and shoemaking in the workhouse.
The Hospital was closed in 1844 and although it was briefly reopened in 1848, to accommodate victims of the outbreak of cholera, it was subsequently demolished and a warehouse erected on the site. The Poorhouse was relocated in the old Royal Lunatic Asylum building on Parliamentary Road.
Reference: Mitchell Library G 941.435 EYR
Reproduced with the Permission of Glasgow City Council, Libraries, Information and Learning
Keywords:
asylums, cholera, churches, homes for the elderly, hospitals, old people's homes, orphanages, Poor Law, poor relief, poverty, Town Council, Town's Hospital and Poorhouse, workhouses