A history of philanthropy
In 1656, Rev. James Palmer provided housing for six poor men and women,
together with a school for the education of twenty boys. Later, he persuaded
Nicholas Butler to bequeath his property in order to build ‘two, or three
more houses’; and in 1674 also encouraged Emery Hill to donate yet more.
In 1708 twelve houses were built in Tuttle Fields on land leased from Westminster
Abbey.
With the redevelopment of Westminster, all properties were consolidated on the site of Emery Hill's almshouses in Rochester Row, becoming the United Westminster Almshouses in 1879, from when many of the present buildings date.