Flophouses in Leeds

[Leeds Hippo]

Some interesting details about a "Spike" - I've never heard the expression beforehttp://www.squidoo.com/tuppence-on-the-ropeQuoteWhat is a spike? The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 made no provision for vagrants - vagrancy was considered a matter for the police. However, tramps continued to ask for shelter at union workhouses which were usually located within a day's walk of one another.After several tramps died from cold or starvation after being turned away from the workhouse, a new law specified that food and a night's shelter must be given to any destitute person in return for some hours of work.The establishments were called tramp wards, vagrant wards, spikes, or casual wards, the occupants known as the "casual poor", or just as "casuals."Someone wanting to spend the night in a spike stood in line in the late afternoon, waiting for admission. There were only a certain number of beds; late-comers might be turned away.When the spike opened in the early They then had to strip and bathe (the water served for several people in a row). They were given a blanket and nightshirt (worn on many previous nights by others) while their own clothes were being fumigated. Dinner was typically 8 ounces of bread and a pint of gruel (also called "skilly"). The doors were locked from 7 p.m. until 6 or 7 a.m. the next morning.Until the 1860s, casual wards had dorms where inmates slept in rows of low-slung hammocks or on the bare floor.Two common jobs for the four or five hours of work demanded:1. Oakum picking (picking apart old rope into fibers that could be sold);2. Stone-breaking - the resulting small stones were sold for road-making.Once vagrants had put in their hours, they each got a lump of bread and were released. However, after the rock-breaking only half the day remained for getting to the next workhouse.It was forbidden to return to the same spike within 30 days so tramping circuits linked a long progression of spikes. Nights at a spike might alternate with sleeping outside or in farm outbuildings, especially during the summer.

[drapesy]

Chrism wrote: The definition in the dictionary of flohouse is basically a doss-house. I think the rope thing is just for comedy in the film. There was a doss-house on Wharf Street (just further down from The Duck & Drake). The Grove it was called, it burned down, I can't remember when. I used to work at Bramley Steam in the mid 70's and we used to do their laundry. I have never seen anything like it in my life. The place was a stinking mess, with tramps laying drunk and peeing themselves. These were the proper tramps not like the 'homeless' chavs of today. Many thanks for this info Chrism - I know the Grove was a pub and became a 'lodging house' c 1888-1890 but didn't know it existed until the 1970s. The Grove pub is covered on page 1 of the inns and pubs of Kirkgate thread (about halfway down) - I have made an amendment in the light of your new info.http://www.secretleeds.co.uk/forum/Mess ... e=0&#21785

[Leeds Hippo]

Another referenceQuoteThe phrase 'hangover' does not come from some alcohol-related source but from the bedtime tradition in Victorian workhouses. Workers lined up along a bench and a rope was tied from one end to the other, allowing them to sleep by draping their arms over the rope which they 'hung over' as it supported them