Over its 200-year history, its premises were cramped and overcrowded, bleak and bug-ridden. However, when the St Pancras workhouse opened in 1809, it was meant to bring comfort to those who had fallen on hard times, site excavations have revealed. Archaeologists from Mola (Museum of London Archaeology) have been astonished to uncover “a significant portion of these original buildings” and “incredible new details about the lives of the residents and masters”. Gwilym Williams, a project manager at