Printed sections through entrance block (EF) and infirmary (LM). Mallow Union Workhouse is now Mallow General Hospital.

The Workhouse Drawings collection contains a representative sample of drawings, plans, and documents drawn from the Irish Architectural Archive's Workhouse Collection. The Workhouse Collection (reference 85/138) in the Irish Architectural Archive includes surviving drawings for workhouses built in Ireland to provide relief for the poor. Built between 1839 and 1847, the workhouses were designed in a Tudor domestic idiom by architect George Wilkinson. Occasionally drawings are accompanied by other documents including the standard printed specification or, more rarely, items of correspondence. Many are in extremely poor condition and their extreme fragility precludes public access. This online collection provides access to drawings and documents relating to the Mallow, Castleblayney, Lismore, and Gorey workhouses. The drawings for Mallow Workhouse may be considered a representative set of the surviving drawings for the Tudor style workhouses built by Wilkinson. The majority of the drawings were produced mechanically (engraved and printed). The inclusion of drawings from Castleblayney, Lismore, and Gorey, in addition to those of Mallow, ensures that this online collection includes samples of each printed drawing.

The Fifth Annual Report of the Poor Law Commissioners, May 1839. Includes details of "the measures which [the Commissioners] have adopted for introducing into Ireland the provision of the Act of last session, for the more effectual Relief of the Destitute Poor in Ireland". The Appendices which accompany the Report contain 'Documents Issues by the Board Under the Irish Poor relief Act', with Section 9 consisting of 'Papers as to the Providing of Workhouses in Ireland' and Section 10 consisting of 'Plans, &c., of Workhouses for Ireland, to contain from 400 to 800 paupers'. Two ground plans were included, one for a 400 to 500 person workhouse and one for an 800 person workhouse. Each plan was accompanied by a 'Bird’s Eye View Shewing the General Arrangement' for the building. These drawings constitute templates for the Tudor-style first wave of workhouses by architect George Wilkinson from which the constructed buildings did not significantly deviate. An important feature of the design was its flexibility; "the pans [were] so arranged as to allow of [an] addition being made without either interfering with the part already executed, or occasioning any sacrifice of the previous outlay".