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You have to be very careful when researching Connaught House in relation to its association with the workhouse as I do not think that the building in market square was the actual workhouse at all, I will try and explain as best I can with the info I have. (Any corrections would be most welcome!)

The Rochford Union Workhouse used the name 'Rochford House' on birth certificates from about 1904 and the address was officially changed to Rochford House in 1930. I think that Rochford House was actually a building in West Street used as an administrative building.

Connaught House in Market Square was purchased as staff quarters in about 1945 although it had been in use by what was then known as The Southend-on-Sea Public Assistance Committee who ran the workhouse from about 1930. There is an agreement between them and the owners Essex county Council dated 1930. On 11 February 1946 the official address of what had been the Rochford Workhouse was changed to Connaught House, again probably because it was used as the administrative address. The end result is all of the later records of the workhouse, or to give it its proper name the Public Assistance Institution in Rochford are titled 'Connaught House' although the actual location of the buildings for the inmates was where the hospital was later sited not actualy in Connaught House.

I also think that Connaught House was later used as a foster home from the 1950's.

I hope that this helps with your research.