General   (General discussion, talk about anything.)

When first I went to work for the NHS, the hospital was a former workhouse. Back then, it still had the so called casual ward. This was a small brick building: a cell. There was no heating or bed, or indeed furniture of any kind. This was the tramps ward: a place were itinerants might spend the night.

Built into the wall was a lattice of perforations in the brickwork, having an aperture of about an inch. As 'payment' for their night's accommodation, the luckless itinerant was only allowed out of their cell when they had broken up sufficient stone, and fed it through the perforations.

I seem to recall George Orwell describing the experience of them (The Spike) in 'Down and Out in Paris and London'.