Brighton Workhouses

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This talk seeks to discover what life was like for the thousands of people who passed through—and in many cases died in—the town’s workhouses: Church Hill and Elm Grove, and the children’s industrial school in Woodingdean. Who were these people? How did they end up in a workhouse? And how do Brighton’s workhouses compare to those portrayed by Charles Dickens? Wherever possible the voice of the pauper inmate is heard to illustrate the darker side of Brighton’s history.

James Gardner is the author of books about the Sussex Lunatic Asylum, the 1881 Balcombe Tunnel railway murder and the Brighton Workhouses. He works for a charity in Lewes and lives in Hove.

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The image shows the Women's Ward at the Brighton Workhouse (with kind permission from Royal Pavilion and Museums)