Westminster Almshouses - Rochester Row, London, UK
N 51° 29.720 W 000° 08.157
30U E 698803 N 5708799
This stone tablet is fixed to the end wall of the northern wing of the almshouses. A similar tablet is located on the end wall of the southern wing. Both plaques are above head height.
Waymark Code: WMEHV9
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 06/02/2012
Views: 3
The plaque reads:
These buildings are the
United Westminster Almshouses
erected AD 1882 following a scheme of the Charity
Commissioners dated 11th July 1879 for the consolidation of
the almshouses in Westminster founded by the Reverend
James Palmer AD 1656, Mr Nicholas Butler AD 1675 and
Mr Emery Hill AD 1705. Further particulars of this
charity are inscribed upon the stone tablets above"
The Westminster Almshouses website (visit
link) gives a brief history:
"In 1656, Rev. James Palmer provided housing
for six poor men and women, together with a school for the education of twenty
boys. Later, he persuaded Nicholas Butler to bequeath his property in order to
build ‘two, or three more houses’; and in 1674 also encouraged Emery Hill to
donate yet more.
In 1708 twelve houses were built in Tuttle
Fields on land leased from Westminster Abbey.
With the redevelopment of Westminster, all
properties were consolidated on the site of Emery Hill’s almshouses in Rochester
Row, becoming the United Westminster Almshouses in 1879, from when many of the
present buildings date."
The website (visit
link) tells about the current accommodation:
"We have thirty-eight flats in Rochester
Row; each has a sitting-room, bedroom, kitchen and bathroom. All are equipped
with an alarm system to summon help in an emergency. Some have a small garden,
or balcony.
The minimum age for admission is sixty, although in practice those taking up
residence are often slightly older. Applicants must have a clear residential
connection with Westminster and be able to look after themselves. A daily warden
service is provided. If a resident becomes too frail to live independently we
help them obtain support, but do not provide that support ourselves.
The cost of living is subsidised through the charity’s endowment, although
residents make a weekly maintenance contribution."
The building is Grade II listed and the entry,
at the English Heritage website (visit
link), tells us:
"United Westminster 15.5.74 Almshouses - II
Almshouses. 1880-2. R R Arnteg architect. Built to replace three former blocks
of almshouses. Two storeys and attic centre, three storey flanking slightly
projecting wings finished with Flemish gables. Centre three windows wood mullion
and transom and projecting solid porch with Doric corner piers and tryglyph
frieze and pediment in rubbed brick keystones. Sill band, covered eaves cornice,
tile roof with three pedimented dormers and square cupola with dome and window
arch. The projecting wings have three windows per floor with keystones, round
windows in gable. The windows in the wings are sashes with glazing bars to their
upper halves only."