4 penny coffin beds. Strange and sad but a clue for curing modern insomnia?
In Victorian London, poverty was a harsh, daily reality for thousands. While the wealthy slept in grand homes, the city’s poor often had nowhere to go. For those living on the streets, one of the few options for shelter was something known as a “4-penny coffin bed”.
A 4-penny coffin bed (also called a coffin house) was an early form of homeless shelter run by charities like the Salvation Army in the late 1800s. For four pennies (a small but meaningful amount at the time), a person could pay for:
A night indoors
A wooden, coffin-shaped box to sleep in
A straw mattress with a tarpaulin cover
It wasn’t luxurious — but it was safer and warmer than the streets.
Those who couldn’t afford 4 pennies had even grimmer choices:
1-penny sit-up: A place on a bench, sitting upright all night
2-penny hangover: A bench with a rope to lean on while sleeping in a seated position — in the morning, the rope was cut to wake everyone up
The 4-penny coffin was both a lifesaver and a stark symbol of social inequality. Though well-intentioned, these shelters showed just how desperate life was for many Londoners. They were one of the first organised attempts to provide basic overnight shelter for the homeless.
But is there a modern day twist?
At Sleep Better we have developed a 3 point sleep resolution plan to help those suffering from insomnia or sub optimal sleep. 3 simple and virtually free techniques that you can use to radically improve your sleep.
Strangely one of the techniques is very similar to the 4 penny coffin. No we’re not recommending rough sleeping or destitution. But we suspect that the poor souls who frequented the 4 penny coffin shelters might have been getting surprisingly good sleep.
Find out more by accessing our 3 point sleep plan.