The gates of the Tufnell Park Workhouse opened to a crop of fresh inmates.  Overseen by the ghastly taskmasters Master Canes, Master Grant, Matron Robinson and Matron Mungly – the children were put to work quickly.  During their day picked oakum, laundered sheets and clothing, wrote in copperplate and cleared the garden.  As if that wasn’t enough fun, the children finished the day with eating a ‘delicious’ bowl of gruel for their supper which they had made in the Workhouse kitchen.