St James Workhouse

The St James Workhouse stood between Poland Street and Marshall Street in Soho. Established in seventeen twenty-five, it functioned as an institution for the parish poor, designed to house hundreds of people who were often put to work spinning yarn or making lace. The site eventually grew into a massive facility, accommodating up to six hundred inmates despite original plans for far fewer. By the early twentieth century, the building had shuttered as a workhouse and served briefly as a refuge for wartime arrivals before being reconstructed into a garage. Today, a multi-story car park sits where the workhouse once operated.