This home-made paper peepshow is unique in many ways. The elongated dimension already sets it apart from most of the other paper peepshows in the Gestetner Collection. The harsh printed winter scene on the front-face contrasts with the cosy domestic interior softly painted on the cut-out panels. The maker seems to have used materials at hand to construct this work. The bellows, however, are made of a paper too thick to neatly collapse or expand. The perspectival illusion, usually seen in other works, is limited by this design flaw, and further hindered by the lining up of the figures on the internal panels. In fact, the paper peepshow looks more like a miniature stage set, with little emphasis on depth.

It is unclear what the paper peepshow intends to portray, but Ralph Hyde (p.192) speculates that this is a workhouse scene (hence the suggestive title). The depiction of women and girls reading together could be the reflection of the Victorian idea that women reading alone and in silence entailed a free and secret interaction between the reader and the words, and could be potentially dangerous and rebellious. Reading aloud and in a group, on the other hand, formed bonds and social ties, and was promoted as particularly appropriate for women.