St. John's Churchyard
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The Church of St John's was built in 1617 and belonged to the former Parish of St Mary's in nearby Whitechapel. The old system of chapels meant that not only was it a central place of worship for the local people but it was also a designated site for providing relief for the "deserving poor" - those who struggled financially either because they were physically unable to work or in dire straits despite having a job. The system of poor relief was governed by the provisions of the Poor Law which operated in England and Wales from the 16th Century until the establishment of the Welfare State in the twentieth century. According to this Law, land owners in a given district paid local rates or property tax to the parish church for the relief of the poor.
The adjoining charity school of St. John's (today transformed into luxury housing) was established in 1756 by voluntary subscriptions and an Act of Parliament. It was built for the education of pauper children in the Wapping area in basic arithmetic, reading, and writing. Girls were also taught domestic chores such as sewing and knitting whilst the boys, since they were boys, would have been given the task of chopping wood! The statues of a girl and a boy in their school uniform still decorates the façade of the old school today.
In the 1700s the education of the poor was seen and used by the elite as a means of "correction" and prevention of undesirable behaviour by underprivileged classes. The setting up of charity schools had become a favourite form of benevolence among the wealthy and hundreds of charity schools sprang up throughout 18th and 19th century England. It was hoped that these schools would maintain social cohesion and prevent revolts. What is more, many feared that if the children of the poor were not properly schooled they would add to the burden on the parish and raise the local rates payable by landowners.
Closely linked to these charity schools were the workhouses which sprang up during this period. They were built mainly as houses of correction, to punish vagrants and beggars and to discipline children. In Wapping itself two such workhouses were built, and were reputedly amongst the most bitterly mean. Charles Dickens describes one of these workhouses in Oliver Twist. The poor worked here in sub-human conditions in a time when they were often treated as a "race apart". The conditions were so harsh, that the poor themselves would do all they could to avoid internment! The impetus of workhouses was really to correct the perceived holes in the provisions of the Poor Law. It was thought that both this Law and the charity system of the time were too costly. The system was criticized for encouraging the poor to remain so instead of becoming workers for expanding industry. In 1834, the Law was amended to remedy these presumed deficiencies. Under the amendment, any claimant had to take a labour test or "means test" to further identify the "deserving poor" as opposed to the poor whose poverty it was assumed was of their own making.
