The Magdalen House in Regency London

The Magdalen Hospital from The Picture of London for 1829

What was the Magdalen House?

The Magdalen House or Magdalen Hospital1 was set up by Robert Dingley in 1758 as a home ‘for the reception of Penitent Prostitutes’2 and to provide an asylum for young women who had been seduced and might otherwise be forced into prostitution.

Robert Dingley from The Magdalen
 Hospital by HFB Compston (1917)

Where was the Magdalen House?

The Magdalen House originally operated on the site of the old London Hospital in Prescott Street, Whitechapel, before moving to St George’s Fields, Southwark. The foundation stone of the new building was laid in July 1769. The Magdalen House was situated on the east side of the road leading from Blackfriars Bridge to the obelisk in St George’s Fields.

The Magdalen House later moved to Streatham and became a school in the 1930s.

What was the Magdalen House like?

The Microcosm of London described the Magdalen House at St George's Fields:

It consists of four brick buildings, which inclose a quadrangle, with a basin in the center. The chapel is an octangular edifice, erected at one of the back corners; and to give the inclosed court uniformity, a building with a similar front is placed at the opposite corner.3

The Magdalen Hospital, St George's Fields, from  
The Magdalen Hospital by HFB Compston (1917)

The admission process

The Magdalen House admitted new residents on the first Thursday of every month. Applicants had to visit the Magdalen and complete a numbered, printed form which they could obtain from the clerk at the door. Each applicant was then called in by number and questioned by the board to determine the sincerity and truth of their statements, and whether they had a heart to reform or just a desire for relief from poverty. If an applicant came with a friend or relation, they were questioned separately to see if their testimony corroborated that of the woman.

Often as many as twenty or thirty young women applied for admission and the committee had to choose the most deserving cases to fill the available spaces. Most of the women were aged between sixteen and twenty-five, or even younger, especially in the early days of the Magdalen. The Picture of London for 1810 exclaimed that the majority of those discharged were less than twenty years old.4

Applicants were not accepted if they were pregnant or had a venereal disease that needed to be treated at the Lock Hospital.

When they were unable to offer a place to an applicant, the committee still tried to help them, either by interceding on their behalf to enable them to return to friends or family, or by supporting them until a place became available.

Life in the Magdalen House

On entry, young women were admitted to a probationary ward and then separated into classes, depending on their situations, each class being under an assistant and the overall supervision of the matron. The Microcosm of London explained:

This separation (useful on many accounts) is peculiarly so to a numerous class of women, who are much to be pitied, and to whom this charity has been very beneficial, viz young women who have been seduced from their friends under promises of marriage, and have been deserted by their seducers: they have never been in public prostitution, but fly to the Magdalen to avoid it: their relations, in the first moments of resentment, refuse to receive, protect, or acknowledge them; they are abandoned by the world, without character, without friends, without money, without resource, and wretched indeed is their situation! To such especially, this house of refuge opens wide its doors; and instead of being driven by despair to lay violent hands on themselves, and to superadd the crime of self-murder to that guilt which is the cause of their distress, or of being forced, by the strong calls of hunger, into prostitution, they find a safe and quiet retreat in this abode of peace and reflection. To rescue from the threatening horrors of prostitution such victims of the base and ungenerous, whose ruin has frequently been more owing to their unsuspecting innocence, than to any other cause; to restore them to virtue and industry, after one false step, and to reconcile their friends, are considerations of the greatest magnitude. The committee generally give such young women the preference, because they are almost certain of the best consequences; for it scarcely ever happens but their relations relent, when, by taking shelter in this house, they have given so strong a proof of their determination to quit a vicious way of life.5

The residents of the Magdalen House were instructed in religion and reading, and trained in work that would enable them to earn an honest living when they left. This work included scullery work, house cleaning, laundry work, cooking, housework, needlework, waiting at the table, dressmaking and millinery. The laundry work brought in a considerable income to the charity in later years.

Horace Walpole visited in 1760 and wrote:

We were then shewn their work, which is making linen, and bead-work; they earn ten pounds a week.6

The women were not encouraged to confide in one another. On the wall of each ward at the Magdalen House was written:

Tell your story to no one.7

Residents stayed at the Magdalen House for different periods of time. Wherever possible, the young women were reconciled to their family or friends, if they were of good character. When this was not possible, they were trained for about two years before entering service when a suitable situation arose. No well-behaved resident was ever discharged from the Magdalen without some means of support, either through family, friends or work.

A Magdalen in 1766 from The Magdalen 
Hospital by HFB Compston (1917)

The success of the Magdalen

According to The Picture of London for 1810, between August 1758 and 1 January 1807, 3,775 women were admitted to the Magdalen of which 76 remained in the house. Two thirds of those who had been discharged (2,468) had been reconciled to friends or placed in service, whilst only fifteen percent (498) had been discharged for improper behaviour. The rest had been discharged at their own request, been incurably ill or died.8

The Microcosm of London confirmed the good success rate:

During the period that it has subsisted, more than two-thirds of the women who have been admitted, have been reconciled to their friends, or placed in honest employments or reputable services. Of this number, some undoubtedly have relapsed into their former errors; but many, who left the house at their own request, have since behaved well; and several of those discharged for improper behaviour, have, to the certain knowledge of the committee, never returned to evil courses. A very considerable number are since married, and are at this moment respectable members of society. Could their names and situations be disclosed (which, for the most obvious reasons, would be highly improper), the very great utility of this charity would appear in the strongest light.9

Supporting the charity

The governors were keen to advertise the existence of the charity, both to those who might benefit from its services and to those who might support it with charitable donations. They regularly published booklets explaining the purpose and operation of the charity. The text from the 1803 edition was reused in contemporary publications writing about the Magdalen House, such as Ackermann’s The Microcosm of London and The Picture of London.

Potential benefactors and others were encouraged to visit the charity. A regulation dated 1758 said:

That Ladies, on permission in writing, may visit the Hospital, the women to be previously acquainted with the Names of such Ladies, that any of them may retire if they think fit.10

The Picture of London for 1810 said:

Companies who wish to visit this charity may be admitted, on addressing their request by letter to the committee, any Thursday; or to the treasurer, A Bennet, Esq upon any day in the week. — No fees are taken.11

The Magdalen Chapel

The Magdalen Chapel
from Ackermann's The Microcosm of London (1808-10)

Visitors were encouraged to attend services at the Magdalen Chapel. These services were so popular that for a time, tickets were issued to control numbers.

The Minutes of the charity in 1786 recorded that tickets were to be discontinued ‘and the collection was taken individually as each worshipper entered the chapel!’12

According to The Picture of London for 1810:

The hours of divine service are a quarter after eleven in the forenoon, and a quarter after six in the evening, and on account of the fascination of the singing, no place of worship in the metropolis is more worthy of the notice of a stranger. It said that the Magdalen Chapel was much frequented, and highly interesting to strangers, both from the celebrity of the preachers, and the sweetness of the music.13

Horace Walpole wrote of his visit to the Magdalen in 1760:

As soon as we entered the chapel, the organ played, and the Magdalens sung a hymn in parts; you cannot imagine how well.14

The most famous chaplain at the Magdalen was the notorious Reverend William Dodd, who held the office of preacher from 1759 until he was executed for forgery in 1777.

Rev William Dodd from The Magdalen 
Hospital by HFB Compston (1917)

The governance of the Magdalen

Queen Charlotte was patroness of the Magdalen from 1765 until her death in 1818 and was succeeded by her daughter Mary, Duchess of Gloucester.

The Magdalen’s first President was Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Marquess of Hertford (1718-1794). On his death, Lord Hertford was succeeded by Jacob Pleydell-Bouverie, 2nd Earl of Radnor (1750-1828), who was President until his death in 1828.

The Magdalen was administered by a board of governors. This committee comprised thirty-two governors who met every Thursday at midday, except on admission day when they met at eleven.

Each governor subscribed five guineas a year. A one-off subscription of twenty guineas or five guineas a year for five successive years qualified a governor for life.

General courts were held four times a year for all the governors of the charity, on the last Wednesday in January, April, July and October. The committee and officers, excepting the President, were elected at the April meeting.

Queen Charlotte from Memoirs
of Her Most Excellent Majesty 
Sophia-Charlotte, Queen of Great Britain
by J Watkins (1819)

Notes

(1) The charity was incorporated under the name the Magdalen Hospital in 1769 but was also known variously as the Magdalen House, the Magdalen Charity and the Magdalen Institution.

(2) From Ackermann, Rudolph and Pyne, William Henry, The Microcosm of London or London in miniature Volume 2 (Rudolph Ackermann 1808-1810, reprinted 1904).

(3) From Ackermann, Rudolph and Pyne, William Henry, The Microcosm of London or London in miniature Volume 2 (Rudolph Ackermann 1808-1810, reprinted 1904).

(4) From Feltham, John, The Picture of London for 1810 (1810).

(5) From Ackermann, Rudolph and Pyne, William Henry, The Microcosm of London or London in miniature Volume 2 (Rudolph Ackermann 1808-1810, reprinted 1904).

(6) From a letter from Horace Walpole to George Montagu dated 26 January 1760 in Letters from the Hon Horace Walpole to George Montagu Esq (1818).

(7) From Compston, HFB, The Magdalen Hospital (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1917).

(8) From Feltham, John, The Picture of London for 1810 (1810).

(9) From Ackermann, Rudolph and Pyne, William Henry, The Microcosm of London or London in miniature Volume 2 (Rudolph Ackermann 1808-1810, reprinted 1904).

(10) From Compston, HFB, The Magdalen Hospital (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1917).

(11) From Feltham, John, The Picture of London for 1810 (1810).

(12) From Compston, HFB, The Magdalen Hospital (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1917).

(13) From Feltham, John, The Picture of London for 1810 (1810).

(14) From a letter from Horace Walpole to George Montagu dated 26 January 1760 in Letters from the Hon Horace Walpole to George Montagu Esq (1818).

Sources used include:

Ackermann, Rudolph and Pyne, William Henry, The Microcosm of London or London in miniature Volume 2 (Rudolph Ackermann 1808-1810, reprinted 1904)

Compston, HFB, The Magdalen Hospital (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1917)

Feltham, John, The Picture of London for 1810 (1810)

Governors of the Magdalen Hospital, A short account of the Magdalen Hospital (1803)

Leigh, Samuel, Leigh's New Picture of London (1818)

Walpole, Horace, Letters from the Hon Horace Walpole to George Montagu Esq (1818)