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Clothworkers Almshouses 34 Essex Road, Islington, N1 8HX |
In 1873 the Clothworkers Company built ten new almshouses on its land behind Davis's Almshouses in Queen's Head Street. The buildings were accessed by a passage east off Essex Road, between Elliotts Place and Queen's Head Street. The site, valued at £3,000, was presented by the Company to Heath's Charity (which had founded the original Clothworkers Almshouses in 1649). The Company also built the almshouses at a cost of £5,310.
The buildings, which accommodated poor Freemen of the Company, replaced the Clothworkers Almshouses in Cripplegate, an area which had become unsuitable for elderly people, being cramped and filled with small clothing workshops and rag trade warehouses.
In 1959 the Company decided to close the almshouses - there were no longer sufficient applications from its Freemen and it was not possible to modernise the buildings at a reasonable cost.
Current status
In 1963 the almshouses were sold to the LCC for redevelopment. They were demolished in 1968. Their site (and the adjacent site of Davis's Almshouses) is now occupied by a modern complex of 3-storey apartment blocks - Raleigh Mews.N.B. Photograph obtained in June 2020
The entrance to the almshouses was through a passageway at No. 34 Essex Road. The surrounding area has been redeveloped as Raleigh Mews.
References (Accessed 16th November 2020)
(Author unstated) 2015 Notable clothworker - John Heath. The Clothworker. Winter No. 14, pp 10-11.
Fry H 1881The Royal Guide to the London Charities for 1881-1882. London, D. Bogue.
www.british-history.ac.uk
www.victorianlondon.org
Last updated 16th November 2020
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