Objects: The upkeep of the almshouses at Bruce Grove, Tottenham or, with the approval of the Charity Commissioners, of other almshouses administered by The Drapers’ Company.
Origin: The Charity was established by a legacy of £1,700 in the Will of Samuel Harwar, Citizen and Draper of London, who died in 1704. After some difficulties, Harwar’s executors purchased a plot of land in Shoreditch and built an almshouse for six men and six women. The Drapers’ Company accepted trusteeship of the Charity in 1717.
In 1877 the almshouses at Kingsland Road, Shoreditch, which had become antiquated and unsanitary, were demolished and the Charity was reconstituted, under the Charity Commission Scheme of 12th August 1879, as a provider of pensions. In 1963 a further scheme replaced the right of the Trustees of St. Leonard, Shoreditch to nominate some of the pensioners with a fixed payment of £400 per annum to the parish charity. This in turn was redeemed for a capital sum in May 1966. The 1963 Scheme also provided that any surplus income be applied for the upkeep of the Company’s almshouses at Bruce Grove, Tottenham or, with the approval of the Commissioners, of other almshouses managed by the Company.
Policy: The remaining pensioners of the Charity were transferred to the pension roll of The Drapers’ Consolidated Charity over 25 years ago. Since then, the income of the Charity has been mainly applied to Edmanson Jolles and Pemel’s Almshouse Charity, which owns and maintains the Bruce Grove almshouses.
