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Headington Union workhouse, designed by George Wilkinson, opened in 1838 on the Headington Quarry section of the London Road (just to the east of the present Gladstone Road). It replaced an earlier smaller workhouse at Titup, where the poor were farmed out..

This pillar (left) and a portion of wall in a Gladstone Road garden are the only remaining signs of the workhouse. It was once a massive hexagonal building with an infirmary to the west, as shown below on the 1876 Ordnance Survey map of Headington:

The following notice appeared in Jackson's Oxford Journal on 10 October 1835:

HEADINGTON UNION.
WANTED,—A PIECE of GROUND, at Headington, or in the immediate neighbourhood, containing 5 Acres or thereabouts, for the purpose of erecting a Workhouse.

This was followed by a notice on 2 January 1836 inviting tenders for building “a Workhouse of Stone, to be dug on the spot”.

Jackson’s Oxford Journal for 13 February 1836 (page 3c) reported that Mr Wilkinson’s plans for Witney, Headington, Thame, Woodstock, and Chipping Norton workhouses had all been approved.

On 28 January 1837 the following advertisement for staff appeared in Jackson's Oxford Journal:

HEADINGTON UNION. PORTER AND SCHOOLMISTRESS WANTED.
THE Guardians, at their Weekly Meeting on Thursday the 2d of February, will appoint a PORTER to the Workhouse of the Union at Headington. He must be a married man, strong and active, without family, and able to write and keep common accounts. His Wife must be competent to act as SCHOOLMISTRESS to the Girls in the Workhouse, and to perform such other duties as the Guardians may direct. Salary £25 per annum, with lodging and such provisions as may be furnished from the ordinary stores of the house.

List of inmates of Headington Union Workhouse in 1841 (PDF file)

In the early days, as well as taking in the unemployed, it served as an orphanage and a home for unmarried mothers, destitute widows, the blind, and the elderly. Many of the inmates in their 60s and 70s whose occupation is given in the census as “Farm labourer” would have been totally incapable of such backbreaking work; and who would have employed the 86-year-old female “Domestic Servant” from Iffley who was an inmate in 1861?

Scandal at Headington Workhouse John Thomas Smith (born in Islip in 1819) was working as a carpenter when on 17 June 1841 at St Paul's Church, Oxford he married Elizabeth Esther Hitchcock, who was born in Broad Street, Oxford and was six years his senior: both were then living in Union Street, Jericho. They do not appear to have had any children. In 1849 the Smiths were appointed Master and Matron of Headington Workhouse, and the 1851 census shows them living there. The workhouse schoolmistress was then Miss Ann Roberts, but later that year Miss Ann Weller was appointed to the post. In 1859 Smith was discovered to be having an affair with Miss Weller, and they were both immediately sacked. The following advertisements for their posts appeared in Jackson's Oxford Journal on 15 June and 23 July 1859 respectively: John Thomas Smith returned to his home village of Islip and resumed his trade as a carpenter. On 23 June 1860 Elizabeth Esther Smith applied to the Justices for an order to protect her earnings against the claims of her husband. The 1861 census shows that Elizabeth (46) had retained her former job and was still the Matron of Headington Workhouse, working with the new temporary Master John B. Snell, a widower of 34. The Smiths were divorced on 13 November 1862, and this report appeared in Jackson's Oxford Journal on 22 November: John Thomas Smith appears to have married again. On 4 June 1870, when he was aged 50 and suffering from delirium tremens, he set his bed on fire and suffered serious burns, dying at the Radcliffe Infirmary the next day. He was buried in Islip churchyard. His former wife Elizabeth Esther Smith never remarried. In 1881 she was aged 66 and at 21 Iffley Road, with her income derived from houses and an annuity. In 1891 her address was given as 22 Iffley Road. She died at 68 Walton Street at the age of 93 in 1907, and her funeral was held at St Paul's Church on 9 July.

Just thirty years after it was built, the new Headington workhouse was no longer big enough. Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 17 October 1868 reports:

The continually increasing requirements for those parishes in Oxford belonging to the Headington Union have induced the Guardians to consider the best means of adapting their workhouse to the increased number of inmates. Acting upon the advice of Mr Codd, the Guardians have determined to remove all the sick into a new infirmary, to be immediately commenced, adjoining the present buildings, and to devote the space thus gained in the House to relieving the overcrowding among the aged people and children.

Much information about the meagre diet and miserable life of the inmates can be gleaned from the Minute Book of the Headington Union Guardians, which survives from August 1841 to 1873 (Oxfordshire History Centre, ref. A61ff.). There is also an excellent thesis by N. T. Simpson based on this minute book entitled “The Headington Union Minute Book” at the Oxfordshire History Centre in Cowley, ref. 362.5 (SIM) Stack).

This job advertisement in Jackson's Oxford Journal of 13 April 1878 shows that the duties of the porter at Headington Workhouse also included looking after vagrants and superintending the male adult inmates when they worked in the garden:

In its latter years, the regime softened, and the Oxford Times of 28 December 1923 reported thus on Christmas at Headington Workhouse:

Workhouse Christmas: Festivities opened at Headington workhouse on Christmas Eve when the staff sang carols to the sick. Breakfast on Christmas Day was followed by communion in the chapel. Dinner included roast beef, port, vegetables and Christmas pudding and custard. The staff did their best to ensure a happy time for those under their care. At the conclusion of the day the inmates gave a carol concert which lasted for nearly two hours. A Christmas tree was heavily laden with presents which afterwards were distributed.

All the same, as Edith Musselle’s reminiscences show, there was still a great stigma attached to being in Headington Workhouse.

Peter Higginbotham’s excellent Workhouse site gives useful general information about how workhouses were run, and includes a page on the Headington Union Workhouse.

The above photograph shows the inmates of Headington Workhouse
in June 1911 celebrating the coronation of George V

In 1929 Kelly's Directory described the Headington Workhouse as follows, avoiding the pejorative term “workhouse”:

The Institution, a plain stone building, in Headington Quarry, is available for 250 inmates, & attached to it is an infirmary containing 60 beds. Rev. Ernest Basil Roberts, M.A. chaplain; Robert Hitchings M.E.C.P., L.R.C.P. Lond. medical officer.

The last entry in Kelly’s Directory for the “Headington Union Poor Law Institution” was in 1930.

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London Road Hospital

In 1931 the London Road Hospital (under the Public Assistance Committee) opened in the former workhouse building. The map below shows the hospital in 1939, looking almost identical in layout to the workhouse on the earlier maps:

It remained a hospital until c.1948.

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The Laurels

In 1949 The Laurels is listed in Kelly's Directory for the first time in the former Workhouse buildings. This was a home under the Oxford City Services Welfare Committee, mostly for elderly residents.

The last entry in Kelly's Directory for The Laurels was in 1960: it was still the only building listed between Gladstone Road to the west and Pitts Road to the east, and was variously numbered 246 and 250 London Road.

The Laurels was closed in about 1960 and the former workhouse building that it had occupied was demolished in 1964. The relevant planning applications for The Laurels estate between 1965 and 1975 are as follows:

•  65/16008/A_H
  The Laurels London Road –1 shop, 156 flats and 43 dwelling houses and garages for private cars
• 66/17427/A_H
  The Laurels London Road – Estate layout for dwelling houses, flats and shops
• 66/17427/AA_H
  The Laurels London Road – Erection of dwelling houses with garages for private cars
• Douglas Veale House (even) 48–74 Gladstone Road, Tilehouse Close, Trafford Road, and John Snow Place
  68/20161/A_H
  The Laurels London Road - Outline application for residential development including shops and garages with roads and footpaths, and the closure to vehicular traffic of the junction of Pitts Road and London Road
• 48–74 Gladstone Road
  69/20161/A_H
  The Laurels London Road - Erection of 6 No five-bedroom houses, 10 No four-bedroom houses, 23 No three-bedroom houses, 28 No three-bedroom houses, 3 No three-bedroom bungalows, 4 No one-bedroom flats for old people, 1 No two-bedroom flat, 1 No shop on ground floor, 17 garages and hardstandings.
  
• 1–43 Colemans Hill, Tilehurst Close (odd) 1–11 (even) 14-34 (even) Trafford Road and John Snow Place
  75/00086/A_H
  The Laurels London Road – (Phase 2) Erection of two four-storey blocks with a two-storey link block for residential use, comprising 18 no. maisonettes, 22 no. flats, 3 no  bungalows and 36 no. garages. (Contract 1)