Almshouses

NOTES: Built as almshouses for the Ironmongers' Company in 1715, these buildings were saved from demolition in 1913 and converted into the Geffrye Museum. Specializing in the English domestic interior, the museum opened to the public in 1914.

NOTES: The Hospital for aged or disabled soldiers and their wives was founded in 1571 by Robert Dudley, Earl of Leycester (Leicester). The medieval buildings which he acquired under charter from Queen Elizabeth I were the premises of the combined guilds of Holy Trinity and St George. The guilds had been created in the 14th century, but the premises must have been rebuilt in the 15th century. The Hospital continued to run under the terms of its original charter until 1956. The site comprises the medieval Hospital, the Chapel (built in 1383), reception rooms, living quarters (including the Master's House), a Guildhall (completed by 1450) and a Great Hall, all of which were extensively restored between 1956 and 1968.

NOTES: Henry de Blois, appointed Bishop of Winchester in 1129 at the age of 28, founded the Hospital of St Cross in 1136, which consisted of a church with hospital buildings on the south side. It is England's oldest charitable institution. The Almshouse of Noble Poverty was added by Cardinal Beaufort within a few years of 1445.

NOTES: The Guild Chapel, rebuilt in the 1490s, was the original meeting place of the Gild of the Holy Cross, founded before 1269. The Grammar School was built in 1417 as the Guildhall of the Gild and was where the corporation met up to the 19th century. The Upper Guildhall became the town's school room in 1553, when King Edward VI entrusted the former Guild's School to the corporation. The almshouses were also built by the Gild as a hospice for its retired members and dependents and date to c. 1427.