London Westminster & Middlesex Family History Society

WORKHOUSE- SEGREGATED LIVES 28th February – 5th July 2013

This spring, the Florence Nightingale Museum will host an exhibition that explores the experience of the unfortunate inmates of the workhouse in nineteenth century Britain. The workhouse will be brought to life by examining the design of the buildings and the inmate’s diet, their work and their health. Real life stories will be drawn upon to counterbalance the often sentimentalized and sensationalist portrayal in the press and literature of the time. Combining rare workhouse artefacts, documentary firsthand accounts, pictorial representations and publications, the world of the workhouse will be vividly brought to life.
The Florence Nightingale Museum is also running a season of public events in tandem with the exhibition, including lectures by historians Ruth Richardson and Peter Higginbotham, among others. Themes covered include food served in the workhouse, how to trace ancestors who were workhouse inmates and the workhouse’s role in medical care. Full events programme can be found here:
http://www.florence-nightingale.co.uk/what-s-on.html

Natalie Conboy, Curator of Workhouse, says:
“We are really excited about Workhouse – Segregated Lives because it explores the social history of the local area here in Lambeth - we’ve had terrific input from neighbouring museums, libraries and archives. We are aiming to provide a balanced view of what life was really like for those in need, and what alternatives people had to entering the workhouse.”
Natasha McEnroe, Director of the Florence Nightingale Museum says:
“This much-needed exhibition will illuminate the health of the very poor in Victorian Britain. Nightingale’s influence on workhouses is unjustly neglected, and this exhibition goes some way to redress that.”
Workhouse – Segregated Lives is curated by Natalie Conboy and Katie Edwards.
For more information
Please contact
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 020 7620 0374

Opening hours: Daily, 10am – 5pm
Address: Florence Nightingale Museum,2 Lambeth Palace Road London SE1 7EW
Website: www.florence-nightingale.co.uk
Contacts: 020 7620 0374, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Nearest transport: Tube - Westminster, Waterloo, Lambeth North, Rail – Waterloo, Riverboat –London Eye Pier, Westminster Pier, Buses – numerous routes
Admission Prices: adult £5.80, child (under 15)/concessions £4.80, family £16 (2 adults and up to 5 children), groups of 15+ receive 10% discount if booked in advance.
Accessibility: Fully accessible for wheelchair users, including toilet facilities. Located on the site of St Thomas’ Hospital at parking level. For the deaf and hearing impaired there is a loop system as well as subtitles on all the films.

Ancestry have released new data covering the London Electoral Rolls 1835-1965. See

http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=1795

Over ½m burial and cremation records for north and central London

Burial and cremation records dating from 1854 for the boroughs of Islington and Camden in central north London are now on Deceased Online. Two conjoined cemeteries, St Pancras and Islington, form the largest single cemetery in London and, in burial numbers, the largest in the UK.

Of the 800,000 burial records, approximately 70% of these are available immediately with the remainder to be uploaded within the next 3 to 4 months. The 575,000 records currently available comprise nearly 362,000 for the Islington section between 1854 and 1945 and the remaining 213,000 for the St Pancras section are for 1854 to 1898, and 1905 to 1911. Also available now are 46,500 records from Islington Crematorium which date back to 1937. The 8,500 most recent cremation records will be added in the next few months, together with the remaining cemetery records. 

The cemeteries and crematorium serve a large catchment area across Central and North London and will therefore be a major research resource. The burial records are in the form of scans of registers; grave details indicating all occupants are available immediately for St Pancras Cemetery, and for Islington Cemetery will follow in the near future. The cremation records include scans of registers.

Notable burials include Henry Croft, the original Pearly King; violinist and conductor Sir Eugene Aynsley Goossens, John Hickey (survivor of the charge of the Light Brigade complete with a memorial erected by, among others, Jerome K Jerome); MP and industrialist Alfred Mond, interred in a stunning mausoleum; recipients of the Victoria Cross and hundreds of other war graves; Ford Maddox Brown, the Pre-Raphaelite painter; and Cora Crippen (aka Belle Elmore), alleged victim of Dr Harvey Crippen.

Over the next few months, maps of areas in the cemetery indicating grave locations will be uploaded together with photographs of many notable memorials and headstones.

The Deceased Online database for London is now over 1.1 million including the Borough areas of Islington, Camden, Havering and Merton. Many more records for other areas in London will be added in the near future.

http://www.deceasedonline.com/