1840 – North Dublin Union Workhouse, Grangegorman, Dublin

Following an Act of Parliament in 1772, a house of Industry was set up on a large site on North Brunswick Street. Originally intended that it would be funded entirely by voluntary donations, by 1777 it was in receipt of funding from the government. Built and extended over some years with work by Francis Johnston and William Murray.

Mentioned by Lewis in ‘A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland’ – “In the House of Industry there is a department for incurable lunatics, idiots, and epileptic patients, in which those capable of any exertion are employed suitably to their unhappy circumstances.”

By 1839, funding was £20,000 per annum and the House of Industry contained over 1600 people including “incurable lunatics’”, the poor, and infirm. “Curable lunatics” were treated at the Richmond Lunatic Asylum which opened next door in 1814.

The North Dublin Poor Law Union was declared in 1839, and work to the existing structures by George Wilkinson allowed the building to open in 1840, allowing it to house 2000 people. The construction cost £4819, with cost of fittings £3180. A hospital wing was erected in 1879. As can be seen from the map and old photographs, the complex was quite large and included different exercise yards and ranges as at other workhouses by Wilkinson. The workhouses in the North and South Dublin Unions were among the busiest in the country. During the years of the Great Famine in particular, the Dublin workhouses were housing thousands rather than the hundreds they were built for.

In the 1890s, the conditions were heavily criticised in a report by the British Medical Journal – a report that led to general improvements in Irish workhouses. It ceased to be used as a workhouse around 1918, when the North and South Unions were amalgamated at the South Union site. Used for a variety of purposes since, the main complex has been demolished.