An illustration from 'London: a Pilgrimage' by Blanchard Jerrold and Gustave Doré, 1872. Jerrold describes how, having queued up for entry to a night refuge, a superintendent 'distributes the regulation lump of bread to the guests, and they pass on, by way of the bath - rigorously enforced for obvious reasons - to the dormitories set out like barracks, and warmed with a stove, which is always the centre of attraction.' Jerrold notes that a number of inmates are sick and coughs 'crackle like a distant running fire of musketry ... No wonder that many of them dread the bath upon their feeble, feverish limbs: and with chests torn to rags as many of them must be'.
