Applicants for Admission to a Casual Ward

This grim scene shows people queuing outside a police station for a ticket to admit them to the casual ward of the workhouse. This ward gave people temporary accommodation for one night. If they wanted to stay longer, they would have to enter the actual workhouse. Many did not wish to submit to this fate as the workhouse regime was extremely harsh. Families were split up on admittance, and inmates had almost no rights making it difficult to leave.

Great debate raged throughout the period about the problem of homelessness. Concern focused on being able to discern who was actually deserving of assistance. Fildes’ social-realist painting is part of this debate. He has picked out the deserving poor through his use of light and colour. These include a soldier who has fought for his country, an honest labourer who wants to work but cannot find a job and a widow in the foreground. The criminals and habitually work-shy disappear into the shadows.

Bought by Thomas Holloway, 1883.