John Whitgift Foundation is pleased to be taking part in this year’s Open House Festival, the annual event where members of the public can get behind the scenes at some of London’s most interesting buildings.
From midday on Wednesday 20 August it will be possible to book tickets for guided tours of the Whitgift Almshouses in central Croydon on Saturday 20 September. Tickets are limited, so do book early!
The building dates from the late sixteenth century and tours will include the chapel, courtyard and Audience Chamber. It’s a fantastic example of a building of that era and today still serves as home to beneficiaries of the Whitgift Foundation.
In 1596 John Whitgift, the then Archbishop of Canterbury (1583-1604), laid the foundation stone of the Hospital of the Holy Trinity at Croydon. The hospital was to be situated at the medieval town crossroads for the maintenance of between thirty and forty “poor, needy or impotent people” from the parishes of Lambeth and Croydon. There were three separate buildings: the Hospital or Almshouses, the Schoolhouse and the Schoolmaster’s House. The first stands at the corner of North End and George Street, and the other two stood nearby in George Street. Because of their rectangular plan, the Almshouses jut out five feet into George Street at the back, creating a bottleneck at what was the town’s main crossroads.
On 21st June 1983, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II visited the Whitgift Almshouses to unveil a plaque commemorating significant restoration work. She signed the Visitor’s Book and was shown, amongst other items, Queen Elizabeth I’s seal on the Founder’s Letters Patents to found a hospital, dated 22nd November 1595. In 1923 after many threats of demolition from the Croydon Corporation’s road-widening schemes, the Almshouses were saved by the intervention of the House of Lords. They are now Grade I listed and the most historic building in the Central Croydon Conservation Area.
