In 1848 the St Clement Danes Holborn Estate Charity purchased 6 acres of farmland from various landowners in Summerstown, then a rural area, on which to building new almshouses to replace the ones in Foregate Street.

Building work began the same year and the new almshouses opened on 12th July 1849. They provided accommodation for 20 elderly men and 20 elderly widows or spinsters who had been ratepayers in the parish of St Clement Danes for five years or more.

Built in Gothic Revival style, the two-storey red brick buildings consisted of a main central block and two wings arranged on three sides of a large garden. In the centre of the main block was a chapel with a Committee Room on one side of it and a lobby on the other; these were flanked by rooms for the Matron and the Superintendent. At the end of each wing there were an additional three cottages. There were also a laundry and a bath house and, at the entrance, the gardener's lodge.

Each dwelling had a sitting room and a kitchen on the ground floor, with a bedroom and lumber room above, and a water closet and a coal cellar at the rear. Each resident was apportioned part of the kitchen garden behind the buildings as an allotment to grow their own vegetables.

The large front garden had a fountain supplied by an Artesian well, which provided water for the residents. Gravel paths were laid and over 2,000 trees, shrubs and plants were planted for the enjoyment of the almspeople.

The Matron and Superintendent were chosen from amongst the almspeople. Their duties included reading prayers to the others each morning.

In October 1952 Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother unveiled a memorial tablet in the chapel to commemorate the charity's 400th anniversary.

By the 1960s the almshouses were reaching the end of their economic life, the accomodation no longer attractive to future residents. The charity decided to build new almshouses elsewhere.

In August 1964 the site was sold to the London Borough of Wandsworth for £167,500 for use as council housing.

In 1966 new almshouses - St Clements Heights - opened in Wells Park Road, Sydenham.

Current status