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Almshouses in N postcode area
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N1 City Road
In 1658 Elizabeth Sandys (nee Cornwallis), Lady Lumley
(the second wife to Richard, 1st Viscount Lumley) bequeathed funds
jointly to the St Botolph's parishes in Aldgate and Bishopsgate in
order for almshouses to be built.
Unfortunately, no suitable site could be found for them within either of the parish bounds.
Eventually, in 1672, a plot of land in the Pest House field in the parish of St Leonard, Shoreditch, was procured, despite this being some 2 km away.
The land, some 95 feet long and 60 feet
wide (29m x 18m) was part of four acres (1.6 hectares) of pasture given to St Botolph
Bishopsgate by the apothecary Edward Underwood in 1663. (Underwood had
already established his own almshouses in Petty France
in 1658). Both parishes contracted a carpenter to build the
almshouses, which were to be equally shared by six poor people - three
from each of the parishes.
A terrace of six single-storey cottages was built.
In 1781 repairs to the building were undertaken, and a plaque added, which stated: THESE
ALMSHOUSES, BUILT IN THE YEAR 1672, ARE THE GIFT OF LADY VISCOUNTESS
LUMLEY TO ST. BOTOLPH, ALDGATE, AND ST. BOTOLPH, BISHOPSGATE. REPAIRED
1781.
By 1820 the almshouses were again in a
serious dilapidated state. An architect employed by the Trustees
estimated that repairs would cost £800 or more. It was decided to
rebuild the almshouses at a cost of £920.
In 1822 the almshouses were rebuilt on
the same site. The plain brick building was of one storey only, with a
slated roof. It was enclosed in front by a small area with iron
railings on a dwarf wall. There were gardens at the rear of the
building. On the front elevation of the almshouses, at their centre,
was placed a square stone panel surmounted by a pediment. It contained
the inscription: THIS
CHARITY WAS FOUNDED AND ENDOWED BY LADY VISCOUNTESS LUMLEY, IN 1657;
FOR THREE POOR PEOPLE OF THE PARISH OF ST. BOTOLPH, ALDGATE, AND A
SIMILAR NUMBER OF THE PARISH OF ST. BOTOLPH, BISHOPSGATE - THESE HOUSES
WERE FIRST BUILT IN 1672; AND WERE TAKEN DOWN AND THE PRESENT BUILDINGS
ERECTED IN 1822.
The inhabitants at that time were receiving an annual stipend of £11 10s (£11.50).
The almshouses closed in 1898.
By 1916
the site had been redeveloped. In the 1950s the entire block became
government offices (HMSO). In the 1970s it became a depot for the
Ministry of Public Buildings and Works. This building still survives
and is now in commercial multiple occupation.
N1 Hoxton
Established by the will of Allen Badger
dated 1674 (or 1675), the almshouses were erected in 1698 on a site in
Hoxton Street, adjacent and to the north of the Weavers Company Almshouses.
The almshouses consisted of two
terraced blocks facing each other across a central yard. Each
single-storey block contained three dwellings and were intended to
accommodate six men and their wives. Each couple would receive
£20 per annum. Later, it seems the almshouses were occupied
solely by women.
By the middle of the 19th century the
buildings had fallen into such disrepair that they had to be condemned.
A scheme to rebuild the almshouses behind the newly built Fuller's Almshouses in Wood Green was rejected.
In 1873 the almshouse funds were
applied instead to pensions, while the buildings were demolished and
the site let for redevelopment. By 1899 warehouses had been erected
where the almshouses had stood.
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Berman's Almshouses, Almshouse Yard, Hoxton Street, N1 6HQ
Revd William Berman, a 17th century Presbyterian minister, had been the chaplain to St Thomas' Hospital until 1662, when he was removed as part of the Great Ejection for rejecting the Act of Uniformity. He continued as a non-conformist Presbyterian cleric, and appears to have enjoyed considerable prosperity.
His will of 1700
instructed his executors to purchase property, whose proceeds could be
used according to his directions, including the establishment of
almshouses.
Berman died in 1703 and his executors established William Berman's Trust
(still active today) to carry out his directions for good works. In
1704 they purchased the Regnier Estate near Berman's own property in
Hoxton Square. As best as can be estimated, this lay between Hoxton
Street and Kingsland Road, a little north of Hoxton Square itself.
Almshouses for eight poor elderly women
were built towards the west of the property, neat Hoxton Street,
probably near the present corner of Fanshaw Street. Each almswoman
received half a chaldron of coals a year.
The almshouses closed in 1813, when new Berman's almshouses were built a little further east, in Basing Place, near Kingsland Road.
The site of the original almshouses later formed part of the extended grounds of Hoxton House Lunatic Asylum, and then for school and college purposes up to now.
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Fuller's Almshouses, Old Gloucester Street, N1 6JF
Judge John Fuller, on his death in 1592, left funds to establish two almshouses - one for 12 men in Mile End, Stepney and one for 12 women in Hoxton. Both were to be in the care of the Mercers Company.
The Hoxton almshouses formed a terrace,
with a small garden to the rear, on the south side of Old Gloucester
Street, a little to the west of Hoxton Street.
They survived through much of the 19th
century, but were gone before 1900, replaced by several large houses.
By this time, Old Gloucester Street and New Gloucester Street had
become Crondall Street.
While those houses appear to have survived the Blitz,
much of the district did not, and there was wholesale redevelopment
after the war. The almshouse site is now at the back of some brutal
council housing.
In 1794 William Fuller
(1705-1800), a banker, founded six almshouses in Hoxton Street, some
500 metres off Old Street Road, and on the opposite side of the street
to the nearby Badger's Almshouses (see above).
A few weeks before Fuller died in 1800
the foundation of another six were added to the site. (At his death, he
was reputed to be one of the richest people in the country.)
The inmates were 'poor dissenting females of his own persuasion', that is, rigid Calvinism.
The almshouses survived until at least the 1860s. By the end of the century the area had been completely redeveloped.
In 1749 Mrs Mary Westby, a widow of
Linton, Cambs., together with her sister, purchased land in Hoxton.
They erected ten almshouses for poor elderly women, and established an
endowment together with a body of trustees for the Mary Westby Trust.
Regulations, established later in 1770,
specified that the almswomen - widows or spinsters - should be drawn
from the Independent, Presbyterian or Antipaedobaptist communities.
The almshouses formed a terrace on the
east side of Pitfield Street, north of the present Crondall Street;
they faced east onto a small garden. They were known locally as the Old Maids' Almshouses.
They remained active until 1881, when
the premises were purchased by the School Board for London, who
compensated the almswomen for the loss of their homes and their removal
expenses.
The funds received were invested and the Trust became the Mary Westby Pensions Charity,
providing pensions for poor Protestant Dissenters in the Hoxton area.
In 2010 the charity was wound up and the remaining funds redistributed
to other charities.
The almshouse site became part of school and college premises until recently. The current modern structure - iQ Will Wyatt Court - provides student accommodation.
N1 Islington
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Heath's Almshouses (Clothworkers), Queen's Head Lane, N1 8NG
In his will of 23rd January 1640 John Heath, a clothworker, bequeathed £1,500 to the Clothworkers Company,
directing that £300 should be spent on erecting five brick
almshouses and the remainder used for land purchase to provide a yearly
income for the almshouses.
The almshouses,
each with two rooms. were built midway along the north side of Queen's
Head Lane around 1649. They accommodated 10 poor men of the
Clothworkers Company, either clothworkers or dressers of cloth, aged 60
years or over. If none could be found, then ten other mechanics or
handicraftmen, freemen of the Company, could be selected. Each almsman
was provided annually with a stipend of £20, a chaldron of coals
and a suit of clothes by the Company.
In January 1656
the Company carried out the first repairs to the buildings, namely
mending broken windows. Improvements were made in 1681 and, in the
following year, the Company's arms, carved in stone, were erected on the front of the buildings.
By 1818, however, the almshouses had become derelict.
In 1825 the residents transferred to the ten new Clothworkers Almshouses built by the Company adjacent to Lambe's Chapel in Monkwell Street. The old almshouses were demolished in 1826.
(Queen's Head Lane was renamed Queen's Head Street in 1866.)
In 1770 the Clothworkers Company built eight new almshouses, on the east side of Frog Lane, to replace the Whitefriars Almshouses, which had been bequeathed to the Company in 1540 by Margaret, Countess of Kent. (In 1560 Lady Anne Packington had gifted the Company lands and properties in Islington.)
The almshouses had been built as one
2-storey block. The central part had a pediment, with the arms of the
Company mounted on it above the two central doors. Also known as Kent's
Almshouses, they were occupied by the widows of Freemen of the Company,
each of whom had two rooms and a garden of their own.
In 1835 each widow received an annual stipend of
£20, a gown and 24 sacks of coal, as well as being entitled to
medical attendance.
In around 1855 the Company built new
almshouses adjacent to the Frog Lane ones. The latter were demolished
and became the courtyard of the new Clothworkers Almshouses, which now faced Dean Street.
(Frog Lane was renamed Popham Road in 1872.)
N1 Kingsland
N6 Highgate
N7 Holloway
N9 Edmonton
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Knight's Almshouses
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Style's Almshouses
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Wilde's Almshouses
N11 New Southgate
N13 Palmers Green
N15 South Tottenham/Stamford Hill
N16 Stamford Hill
N16 Stoke Newington
N17 Tottenham
N19 Islington
N19 Hornsey Rise
N20 Whetstone
N21 Winchmore Hill
N22 Wood Green
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Fishmongers & Poulterers Institution
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Fuller's Almshouses
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Porter's and Walter's Almshouses, Nightingale Road, N22
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Printers Almshouses, 245 High Road, N22
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St Leonard's House. Nightingale Road, N22
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Shoreditch Almshouses, Nightingale Road, N22
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