Poorhouses were dotted all over Scotland. There were nine in Lanarkshire alone. But the biggest and best known in Glasgow was Barnhill in Springburn.*
It was near a railway station of the same name. And it was on a 33 acre site bounded by Petershill Road, Avonpark Street and Edgefauld Road.
It was completed in 1854 ad could accommodate 2000.
And the inmates -they weren't residents- were segregated into four groups -men, women, boys and girls.
Plus the "poorhouse might have been the name but workhouse was the ethic." They ground flour, broke stones, picked oakum. They worked from six in the morning until seven at night (Burrowes 2004).
And if they quibbled or caused problems they were put on a bread and water diet and sent to the punishment cell!
It was a pauper's penitentiary!
*As Foresthall Hospital it wasn't demolished until the late 60's.