The victorian solution for the homeless: the 4 penny coffin. For 4 d a person could geat a blanket, pillow and single coffin to sleep in the warm of a building for the night.
Wednesday, 12 Mar 2025
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If you couldn’t afford something like this there was the two penny ‘hang’, which was a rope strung across the room that you could flop or fold over and would hold you upright while you slept. These appear in Dickens and a century later in George orwells’s ‘down and out in London and Paris’.
I wouldn’t mind sleeping in a coffin but does it have to be that close together others?
That’s around £2 in today’s money
It is way better than putting anti-homeless benches in parks and stations
Reading that title was a pain.
This was not out of charity, it was a money making venture. It’s set a bit later but still highly relevant, The Road To Wiggen Pier is a good insight into English homelessness and poverty from a single man’s perspective.
Stop giving my landlord ideas
There must’ve been lots of bugs and mites people brought in. But it was probably better than sleeping outside.
We’ve come up with no new solutions since the Victorian era.
Luxury. Two pence got you a sleep with your arm on a rope, or the penny sit up where you wen’t allowed to lie down
There were worse options than that. Some places offered a bench to sit on, along with a rope at chest-height that a row of seated men could could lean against it while they slept so that they didn’t fall off.
The fuckin’ Victorians, man, I swear.
So… a hostel?
Buryready
old timey capsule hotels
Better than what we do for homeless now
using coffin is wild
There’s also the [penny sit-up and two-penny hangover](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_sit-up)
Helluva lot better than what’s available now
Still kinder than most politician’s solutions today.
Is it just me or the guys on the right are Stalin and Lenin?
Watch “Moby Dick” with Gregory Peck. There is a scene where Ishmael arrives at a boarding house before they board the ship. He meets another ship-mate in the bed they are going to share!
At least they tried something. Now they just make park benches so unbelievably uncomfortable so the homeless won’t sleep on them.
Such a weird and interesting picture. Stalin look-a-like lying terrified under the rubber sheet. Lenin look-a-like next to him reading book quite sensually.
Better than sleeping on a clothesline like in the Bowery.
These homeless people are dressed better than some millionaires today
In this economy we might be close to this again
They also had a ‘2 penny hangover’
Basically a bench and a rope that you could lean on… but you were not allowed to sleep there, just rest.
iirc you also got the option of a rope to lean on
Will that loto number roll ? 28 , 9 , 48, 35, 28
This would have been the Canadian solution too but I think the govt will start taxing the coffins and the slumlords will start asking for 2 indian, vegetarian only, gujrati renters per coffin.
every human deserves a roof over their head homeless or not… it’s a shame that people are homeless in the richest countries of the world like at least give them a shelter to spend the night even if they sleep in boxes
In this age they will just shit in them 💩
What material was that bedding made out of? Rubber?
I live in Victoria, and never heard of this, and we use dollarydoos and cents
How thoughtful
Consistency requires that the homeless shall also be coffin-less.
Would you like to make 4 pennies George?
Well hurry up lad, I ain’t got all day
Precursor of capsule hotels
Nowadays we call em “pod hotels”.
Guy on right is petrified as baldy is reading A picture of Dorian Gray aloud to him.
American here shocked to learn we are doing worse than Dickens’ London.
Seems simple enough
The Victorian solution for homelessness; the 4 penny coffin. For 4 p a person could get a blanket, a pillow and single coffin to sleep in, in the warmth of a building, for the night.
[Disruptors are deploying some new ideas to challenge the housing scarcity crisis.](https://www.cracked.com/article_26540_for-241200-month-you-too-can-live-in-tech-bro-flophouse.html)