History
The Almshousing. Just after the civil wars, the Reverend James Palmer, the incumbent of the Broadway Chapel, provided housing in Palmers passage off Brewers Green and Lower Chapel Street (now Caxton Street) for six poor men and six poor poor women with a school for the education of 20 poor boys. Some years later after the restoration of the monarchy, James Palmer persuaded Nicholas Butler to bequeath his property in order to build ‘two or three more’ houses. Unfortunately, after the Great Fire, building materials were especially expensive and only two houses were built but, these were adjacent to James Palmer's Almshouses. In 1674, James Palmer persuaded Emery Hill another friend, to donate more property and in 1708 twelve more houses were built in Tuttle fields, on land leased from the Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey.
All three almshouses had been built on the perimeter of the medieval
city, and with the coming of the railway and with the consequent
expansion, the City needed to be re-aligned to allow member of parliament
easy access to their homes and constituencies. Palmers Almshouses
and an area to the West, known as Palmer’s village were not
considered worth saving and in 1879 all three Charities were consolidated
on the site of Emery Hill's Almshouses in Rochester Row. The United
Westminster Almshouses were born.
In 1952 after the National Health Scheme was introduced, the adjacent dispensary premises were added and after extension of that property and many conversions, accommodation was made available for a total of thirty-eight residents.
The Relief-in-need and Pensions Charities. In his will, Emery Hill the founder of the almshouses in Rochester Row, directed that 13 cauldrons of sea coal should be laid down annually and that gowns should be supplied to the pensioners, the cost not to exceed ten shillings and sixpence. Much later Mrs Hannah Chadwick, made a generous bequest to provide pensions for the Almspeople. The Trustees are also trustees of a number of other Charities which are administered as part of the United Westminster Almshouses Foundation. These include; Vachers Endowment, the Bengough Charity, the Sarah Duchess of Somerset Charity and the former Consolidated Charity (now the Vandon Fund) amongst others.