IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Church Estate Almshouses, RICHMOND, TW9 1UX

More functional in appearance than Hickey's Almshouses http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2316286 next door, less architecturally ambitious - but certainly more colourful, built of bricks in three colours:http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2316683. The British Listed Buildings website gives the architect's name as William Crawford Stow, and the date as 1843: http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-435926-richmond-church-estate-almshouses-richmo. A slate slab at first-floor level is inscribed with the names of the trustees at the time of building. They include 'The Earl of Shaftesbury'.

This is the back of the buildings, seen from St Mary's Grove. The front faces Sheen Road. They are listed grade 2 (listed building no. 435926 or Heritage asset number 1252805 from 2011). According to a local history website http://www.richmond.gov.uk/local_history_almshouses.pdf, "The Church Estate charity is the oldest charity in Richmond, having been founded in the reign of Mary I by Thomas Denys. Denys gave properties to the Church for repairing the church and other charitable deeds in 1558. There was a dispute over the property which was possibly settled in 1650 when a trust was formed to provide for the poor of Richmond ... By 1844, the Trustees of the Church Estate ... built 10 almshouses for men and women on a site adjacent to Hickey’s Almshouses in Sheen Road."

Zoom-view of a colourful roundel in the gable of this early Victorian (1843) building. According to the description given when the building was 'listed' (Grade II) bricks of three colours were used: red, yellow and white. It is no longer easy to see the difference between the yellow and the white, but the main structure must surely be of yellow brick - white being reserved (with red) for the decorative details. For a more general view of the building see http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2316364.

Grade II listed almshouses built in 1843 to a design by architect William Crawford Stow, one of the founders of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Description at this https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1252805.

One of several accommodation blocks around the main quadrangle Image

A shop on St Mary's Grove, Richmond. According to its website http://www.storyexplorers.co.uk/ "Story Explorers is an exciting, stimulating toy and bookshop with story workshops where you and your children can read and play together".

For the original buildings of this complex see Image These "additional" almshouses built 1851 are on St Mary's Grove behind the main buildings. They are listed grade 2 (listed building no. 435928 or Heritage asset number 1252832 as from 2011).

For context see Image The text reads "additional almshouses erected on the foundation of w Hickey Esq who died 1728". According to a local history website , "William Hickey, who died in 1727, left his property in trust to provide pensions for 6 men and 10 women. Hickey owned several important and valuable properties on Richmond Hill, including The Wick. By the start of the 19th century, the trust had to decide what to do with the large amount of income. So in 1834 it decided to build and endow 20 almshouses for 10 men and 10 women, plus a chapel, and 2 gate lodge cottages – 1 for a porter, the other for a nurse – in Sheen Road. Since then another 29 dwellings have been built on land behind the original almshouses."