The St Luke's Workhouse stood on City Road between Wellesley Terrace and Shepherdess Walk in the parish of St Leonard Shoreditch, today the

London Borough of Hackney The London Borough of Hackney ( ) is a London boroughs, London borough in Inner London, England. The historical and administrative heart of Hackney is Mare Street, which lies north-east of Charing Cross. The borough is named after Hackney, Lond ...

Bunhill Fields site

Initially, the workhouse was located on the north side of Featherstone Street,

Bunhill Fields Bunhill Fields is a former burial ground in central London, in the London Borough of Islington, just north of the City of London. What remains is about in extent and the bulk of the site is a public garden maintained by the City of London Cor ...

, it having opened in 1724. It was in the Lordship division of the St Giles without Cripplegate parish that was outside the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

and became the new parish of St Luke's in 1733. The lease expired in 1782.

City Road site

A local act in 1782 enabled the

St Luke's Vestry The St Luke's Vestry was the vestry of St Luke's, an urbanised parish north of the City of London, from 1733 until 1900. The vestry had growing secular authority over the parish with the relief of the poor its main responsibility. It was incorpora ...

to build the new workhouse and offices just over the boundary in the parish of St Leonard Shoreditch at a cost of £2,000 (). In 1867 a new vestry hall was completed on the site, fronting City Road. The workhouse infirmary became the Holborn and Finsbury Institution in 1916. In 1930 it was taken over by the

London County Council The London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today ...

and was renamed the St Matthew's Hospital in 1936.

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

bomb damage destroyed the southernmost block, which was never fully repaired. The hospital was closed in 1986. The vestry hall was sold to the London and Provincial Assurance Company before being demolished in the 1960s.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Luke Workhouse London Borough of Hackney Workhouses in London History of the London Borough of Hackney