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GCSE History · key term
A building used to separate people suffering from plague from the wider population.
Used by AQA, Edexcel and OCR
Paper 2
A building used to isolate and care for people suffering from an infectious disease such as plague.
Revise: CrisisThe royal orders of 1666 required towns to provide an isolated pest-house, hut or similar building to which sick people could be moved. In practice, London had very few pest-houses. Infected houses were to be shut for 40 days, even if nobody had died there.
Paper 1
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A separate institution for people suffering from infectious diseases, such as plague or pox.
Pest houses accommodated people with infectious illnesses such as plague or pox separately from general hospital patients. They developed from the earlier tradition of lazar houses. Separation suggests recognition that illness could pass between people, even though its exact causes were not understood.
Paper 1
Revise: Responses to plagueIn 1626, the corporation began investing in pest houses, which helped separate infected people from others. Officials were also stationed at the city gates to prevent strangers entering.