Whether it was 'the batille', 'the spike', 'the work'us' or simply 'the house', the Victorian workhouse was the cause of dread and shame for thousands of men, women and children. The workhouse was the last resort, and the authorities intended that it should be seen as such. This book looks at the principles that lay beind the New Poor Law of 1834, at the design and construction of workhouses, and at the lives of those who entered them, either as officers or as paupers.