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On completion of the refurbishment, the Spike will be used as a community and heritage centre. One of the most exciting long term projects will be to create the Heritage Area within the building that will provide an educational insight into the poor laws and they way in which they dealt with the less well off. How do we compare with our treatment of the homeless today? What was their life like under the Victorians? Why was the poor law amended in 1834? Believe it or not because the poor were being treated too well! We will raise awareness of what it was and is like to be 'on the streets', 'living rough'. It is not a new phenomenon and has existed for more than 500 years. There are still many questions to answer; Why is homelessness still such an issue that few want to know about? Why is there no proper funding to help the homeless? Why do councils struggle to provide suitable hostel accommodation? Why do casual workers still sleep rough on the streets of many of our capitals? |
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| The Spike was built along the
northern edge of the Guildford Workhouse site. It is a long thin
building. The left hand (Western) end originally had five women's
cells and later contained a chapel
and day room . We will use this area to
provide two community meeting rooms. The East wing had 28 male cells
and we will re-instate this area as a visitors centre.
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| This was the entrance to the Spike.
Vagrants and Casuals would have queued on what was then Union Road waiting
for this gate to open.
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On the left is a small room used to process the Vagrants and Casuals. On the right is the main casual ward building. |
After a quick medical test it was off up to the male cells for the men. We believe they were made to bathe before going to their cells. |
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| We will be renovating this corridor and
removing the false ceiling.
If we can raise enough money we will re-instate the lantern lights.
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Welcome to your room for the night.
8'0"(3.8M) x 4' 6"(1.4M) two to the cell on a busy night.
With the amount of development in Guildford at the turn of the last century,
the Spike was always busy.
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Quite a nice door from the inside. The
fine mesh helped to stop the more unruly occupants spitting at anyone
looking in.
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All the cells on the Northern side of the corridor at one time had stone breaking annexes. Four still remain and are the 'jewel in the crown' of the Guildford Spike. We believe they are the finest example in the country. The grill would be swung open and a rock placed inside the cell. With the grill closed again, the vagrant would then break up the rock and feed it out through the grill |
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| Now what could these be for?
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Ideal for road laying, but a tough way to earn your breakfast. | Casual workers had a better time of it as most could pay for their stay. | |||
