The East India Company's Almshouses
The East India Company's almshouses were Poplar's
principal private charitable foundation from 1628 to 1866.
The first almshouse stood on the site now occupied by
the former District Board of Works Offices and No. 115
Poplar High Street. The latter was the East India
Company chaplain's house and is the only surviving part
of the almshouse complex as rebuilt in 1801–2. The
almshouses were demolished and the grounds became
Poplar Recreation Ground in 1866–7 (see page 160).
Purchase and Development
The almshouse was founded to provide for disabled East
India Company seamen. The initiative came when the
East India Company found itself bound to honour the
intentions of the will of Hugh Greete, a jeweller and
disgraced company factor. In buying diamonds Greete
allegedly kept the best for himself, and otherwise
defrauded the company of huge sums. In 1618 he was
sent home from India a prisoner. By 1619 he was dead
and the company had seized his diamonds and other
goods, worth between £700 and £900, to make up for
the fraud. However, Greete's will directed that his estate
was to be used to found a school or hospital. The
company paid out £300 for Greete's debts and affirmed
that it would use the rest of the estate and 'some other
remaynders of ould accompts', later put at £222, to build
an almshouse for the company's disabled seamen, their
widows and orphans. The company held that the money
was rightfully theirs, and so this was to be done in their
name rather than Greete's. Sir Thomas Roe (c1581–
1644), who had recently returned a wealthy man from
his embassy to the Court of the Mogul Emperor Jehangir,
promised £400 towards the almshouse and directions
were given for the raising of further funds in India. Roe
and others were sent to view 'a great brick house at
Blackwall', cheaply available, for use as the almshouse.
Blackwall Yard, formed in 1614–18, made this a suitable
location. Following a suggestion from Sir William Russell
(d.1654), a 'Committee', Treasurer of the Navy, and one
of Greete's executors, the company decided to follow the
example of the Navy at Chatham and impose a rate of
4d a month on the wages of all employees, for the benefit
of those disabled in service. (ref. 101)
This proved to be a false start. The levy on wages was
not successfully imposed, the status of Greete's estate
remained unsettled, and so Roe's offer was apparently
not taken up. The project was deferred, despite a plea
from the inhabitants of Ratcliff, Limehouse, Mile End
and Poplar in 1623 for relief towards the costs of maintaining the widows and orphans of Indian voyages. (ref. 102) The
company failed to persuade seamen to make voluntary
contributions to their own relief fund, but in 1625
succeeded in imposing a rate of 2d in the pound on the
wages of all but its poorest men, generating £60 for the
almshouse by 1626. The company could find no legal
grounds for claiming the whole of Greete's estate and
there was concern that questions would be asked later if
a sum given for building an almshouse was withheld. (ref. 103)
In April 1627 Captain Thomas Styles reminded the
company that it held money for an almshouse and that
'a large and convenient brick house' with three acres of
ground in 'Blackwall' was available. The house, in fact
in Poplar High Street, was purchased from Edward
Dalton of Ratcliff for £360 and a satin suit. It was,
perhaps, the same house that had been available in 1619
and may have been standing empty or little used since
then. (ref. 104) The single known representation of the house
suggests a complex building, perhaps largely Elizabethan
(Plate 13a). It was basically quadrangular and largely
brick, with a timber-framed east range. (ref. 105)
Demolition and rebuilding of the house as a conventional cloistered hospital was deemed too expensive,
so the company decided to make repairs, additions or
alterations, 'as by some skilfull Survaior shalbe thought
meete'. William Burrell, whose house in Deptford was
shortly to be altered by a Mr Carter, offered to help in
this regard. A 'Committee for the Almshouse' was formed
consisting of four 'Committees' – Styles, Thomas Mun,
Robert Bell and Anthony Abdy – and 'Mr. Carter, the
Surveyor' (Edward Carter) was consulted. (ref. 106)
(fn. k)
After much debate it was agreed that the remainder of
Greete's estate, set at £446 10s 1d, would be used for
the remodelling of the almshouse. The company was
determined that the building was to be regarded as its
work, but William Russell stipulated that unless Greete
was remembered as a benefactor, he would not give a
formal release of the estate. The company resolved to go
ahead without the release and in the event the fact that
Greete's estate was, after all, used towards the almshouse
was not minuted. Styles procured another £134 for the
building through the rate on wages. (ref. 108)
Carter had prepared plans for remodelling the house
to accommodate 20 almsmen at an estimate of £350, but
the company decided to 'perfect the front of the house'
first, and to proceed thereafter only as far as designated
funds would allow, so as to avoid any charge on the
company's current revenue. (ref. 109) The Almshouse Committee met Carter at Blackwall on 11 August 1627 to
arrange the rebuilding of the front range. John Tanner,
bricklayer, John Jackson, carpenter, and James Goodall,
plasterer, were given specifications of the work required.
This included removal of a canted bay from the west
side of the front and an entrance porch from the east
side so that it could be rebuilt as a symmetrical façade
around a new central entrance with a Portland stone
surround. Robert Fotherby, the company's Clerk at Blackwall Yard, was directed to order 30,000 bricks forthwith,
because they were cheaper in the summer than in the
spring. (ref. 110) These instructions make it clear that the street
façade in the 1798 view of the almshouse is as remodelled
by Carter (plate 13a). It is notable as an early example
of the astylar domestic style developed principally by
Inigo Jones in the 1630s.
The first two pensioners, John Ferne and Tristram
Hughson, were admitted to the almshouse on 5 March
1628. (ref. 111)
(fn. l) Disorder in the house in 1635 led to the introduction of regulations and the reading of prayers by one
of the pensioners in the chapel that was part of the
building. (ref. 113) In 1647 a schoolmaster was brought in to
teach children and seamen 'the marriners' art, etc.' in
the great hall, with a library in an adjoining closet, and
other rooms for himself. (ref. 114)
(fn. m)
The East India Company's involvement in Poplar
became less commercial and more pastoral in the late
1650s, following the sale of Blackwall Yard and the
assumption of a patron's role at the Poplar Chapel. The
chapel and the almshouse remained Poplar's main centres
of worship, education and charity for many years. The
chapel within the almshouse became the school in 1657
when the first 'chaplain' was appointed. He was given
six rooms, the schoolmaster two, and the great hall was
reserved for 'the entertainment of any of the Company,
when any occasion should require their repaire to Poplar'.
Alterations were made by John Tanner and Isaac
Jackson. (ref. 116) The almshouse was maintained by the rate on
East India Company employees' wages, which, with
additional bequests, built into a substantial fund, known
from the eighteenth century as the Poplar Fund. In
1732 the school and schoolmaster's apartments, evidently
abandoned at an earlier date, were converted into rooms
for eight more pensioners, making a total of 22, and from
then on widows were admitted. (ref. 117)
Extension, Rebuilding and Closure
The Poplar Fund burgeoned and came to be used for
pensions for the East India Company's better-paid
employees. (ref. 118) It was suggested in 1796 that new almshouses be built for retired Commanders and Officers, or
their widows, the old building to remain for boatswains,
gunners, carpenters and caulkers, or their widows, 'but
none inferior'. In 1798–9, 12 two-storey houses were
built, to plans presumably prepared by Richard Jupp,
Company Surveyor. (ref. 119) These were a plain east-west brick
terrace with a central pediment, near the north end of
the company's land and facing south to the chapel. Their
backs and gardens soon came to look over the East India
Dock Road. They were known as the Upper Buildings. (ref. 120)
The courtyard almshouse held a very limited number
of those eligible for pensions and was unsuited to expansion. The building of the West India Docks from 1800
began to make Poplar less of a quiet backwater and more
a commercial centre. The old almshouse had become an
unfashionable face for such and august body as the East
India Company to show in London, and in 1801–2 the
company had it demolished. New houses for greater
numbers were built on the same site, extending further
west. (ref. 121) They were presumably paid for through the
Poplar Fund, and Henry Holland (1745–1806), Company
Surveyor from 1799 to 1806, would have had charge of
the work. These almshouses, the Lower Buildings, were
arranged symmetrically around a chaplain's house (see
below) (fig. 25). There were 26 houses, originally neatly
disposed in two 'handed' groups of four, five and four
around three sides of small yards. Along the fourth side
were tree-lined paths flanking the chaplain's house and
linking the High Street to the chapel. These were simple
two-storey ranges, a single bay to each house, with
ground-floor verandas and segmental heads over doors
with side lights. (ref. 122)
Both sets of almshouses were subsequently enlarged
on newly purchased land to the west, with six more Upper
Buildings and twelve more Lower Buildings apparently
erected in 1805–6. The Upper Buildings were extended
at both ends and returned to the south to close the
corners of the company's grounds. The Lower Buildings
were extended to the west with eight houses along the
High Street and four behind the westernmost to form
another semi-enclosed yard. To the west of these, an
arched and gated entrance was formed to a carriageway
from the High Street to the grounds. There were thus
38 Lower Buildings and 18 Upper Buildings at either
end of a large enclosed rectangular plot. (ref. 123)
In 1808 and 1819 the company bought more land to
the west and the north, up to present-day Hale Street
and the East India Dock Road. (ref. 124) <In 1824 some work was carried out at the almshouses by S. P. Cockerell, surveyor to the East India Company, and his son C. R. Cockerell.> After the demise of the
East India Company in 1858 the Government kept the
buildings going as the Poplar Marine Hospital until 1866,
when the former East India Company land, excluding
the chapel, burial ground and chaplain's house, was sold
to the Poplar District Board of Works. The almshouses
had been demolished by early 1867. (ref. 125)
No. 115 Poplar High Street
The house called Meridian House at No. 115 Poplar
High Street was built in 1801–2 by the East India
Company, through its Poplar Fund, to accommodate the
chaplain serving the company's newly rebuilt almshouses
and the chapel (later the Church of St Matthias). (ref. 126) Henry
Holland, East India Company Surveyor, presumably had
responsibility for the building project, if not the detailed
design. The house is of stock brick, with Portland stone
dressings that include a pediment carrying the arms of
the East India Company, a slate roof and tall end stacks
(plate 15c). Originally two rooms deep it has been
extended to the rear (fig. 29). The proportions of the
sparsely fenestrated façade may reflect the house's original
position, set back as the centrepiece of a long composition
(fig. 25). Part of the west wall, at least, is raised on the
foundations of the courtyard almshouse. Simple dado
panelling on the ground floor and what is evidently the
original staircase survive. (ref. 127) The ground-floor fireplaces,
originally probably timber like those still on the first
floor, were replaced in marble, in part in 1848. (ref. 128) The
garden was probably laid out to its present dimensions
and dimensionsand enclosed by walls in 1801–2.
Figure 29:
No. 115 Poplar High Street (former East India Company Chaplain's house), ground- and first-floor plans in 1983
A long brick entrance porch was added in 1826, to plans by William Wilkins, East India Company Surveyor
(plate 15c). (ref. 129) It was removed in 1964 for road widening
and replaced by a hood and columns designed by CecilBrown (1902–83), architect, and erected by R.W. Bowman Limited. (ref. 130)
The house was conveyed to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in January 1867, to be the vicarage to the
Church of St Matthias. John Fenwick Kitto, the first
incumbent, had a rear extension built in 1868, for an
estimated £194, with Henry James Tollit, of Oxford, as
architect and John C. Riddall as builder. (ref. 131) The rear
elevation has some prominence as it faces the churchyard.
The addition was a three-storey 'tower', densely fenestrated and aggressively Gothic with finely gauged
yellow-brick pointed arches.
Proposals for further large additions to the house
were submitted by Kitto's successor, Charles Neil, in
1875. They were condemned as too extravagant by
Ewan Christian, for the Ecclesiastical Commissioners,
and made more modest. (ref. 132) Works were carried out in
1878, with Riddall again the builder. They included
the front bay window and rear additions flanking the
1868 block, that to the north-east extending a shallowprojection, that to the north-west linking to a preexisting single-storey pantry and w.c. outbuilding. (ref. 133)
The north-west addition has a first-floor triple-hung
sash window where the upper part of an earlier window
was re-used over a conventional sash. With the closure
of the Church of St Matthias in 1976 the house was
sold to become a private residence.