Drapers' Almshouses / Walters Close

The Draper’s Almshouses in Glasshouse Street are an attractive row of houses which are now privately owned.  Built in 1820, their history goes back to the 17th Century.

 

In 1642 John Walter, Clerk to the Drapers' Company, became concerned that many of the poor "had lately perished by lying abroad in the cold for want of habitation, to the great dishonour of God."  He offered to build almshouses in the parishes of St George the Martyr and St Mary Newington on land provided by the parishes who would also be responsible for the maintenance of the almshouses once built.  Walter wished his gift to be anonymous until after his death and by the terms of his will, Walter bequeathed property in trust to maintain the almspeople.

 

The parish of St George the Martyr obtained an area of land on the edge of St George’s Fields from the City of London Corporation, situated roughly where Borough Road and Borough High Street intersect today.  Two houses were built, each with four rooms, that accommodated 16 paupers, some selected by the parish and some by the Company of Drapers,  who were to be of “good name and fame and of quiet life and honest conversation”.   In 1653–54, a chapel and a room for the Trustees to use for the distribution of pensions were added.  

 

The almshouses were rebuilt, set back a little way from their original position, to accommodate the building of the new Borough Road in the 1770s.  In 1820, the City of London needed the land for more development and provided the site in Glasshouse Street (then Hill Street) and £1,250 for the cost of rebuilding the almshouses.  The new almshouses comprised a row of five houses of two storeys, with an ornamental garden to the front, which is still maintained, and a row of fuel stores and wash-houses to the rear.  The almshouses were sold in 1973 and the residents moved to Walters Close in Brandon Street.