Mary Tate's Almshouses

Mary Tate was born in c.1776 into a wealthy family who owned a number of properties in different parts of the country, including Burleigh Hall in Leicestershire; Langdown near Dibden in Hampshire; property at Grosvenor Place, London and a large house on Cricket Green in Mitcham. Mary, who never married, became sole heir of the estates on the death of her father George Tate in 1822, and she initially allowed the Mitcham property to be used as a home for the mentally ill before making the decision to have the house demolished and to build almshouses on the site. They were endowed for 'twelve elderly ladies of good character, regular Church of England communicants and who had never been a charge on the Parish'. Mary Tate administered the almshouses with a group of Trustees, including the Vicar of Mitcham, and during her lifetime she selected the almswomen and specified a preference for "old servants or decayed tradeswomen". She gave an endowment to facilitate the upkeep of the building and during her life was a generous benefactor, endowing not only the almshouses but also giving to schools and churches in other locations. Mary died in 1849 at Burleigh Hall, and is buried in Mitcham parish church of St Peter and St Paul's Church, (q.v.) where her father is also buried; a memorial to 'Mrs Tate', 1821 by sculptor Sir Richard Westmacott is in the church. . 

The single storey almshouses were built in 1829 to designs of J C Buckler, constructed of stock brick and arranged around a communal front garden. The middle gable of the building includes the Tate coat of arms, which is associated with the family motto "Thincke and Thancke". The almshouses were renovated in 1991 and continue to provide sheltered accommodation for women who have lived 'in the ancient parish of Mitcham' for at least 5 years. The OS of 1867 shows the garden fronting the almshouses and the garden behind with trees and a central path. By the late C20th the rear garden was being rented out on an informal basis as allotments. By 2002 some of the plots were described as overgrown and not all in use, when the almshouse charity sought planning permission to build 5 additional bungalows over the rear site. The design scheme included landscaping the area between the old and new almshouses as a courtyard with planting and a pergola, in order to provide a communal space and also vehicular access through removal of a section of the boundary wall. However, this has not taken place to date and each of the 7 almshouses has a small patio area at the rear, facing a communal area with allotments.

The almshouses are little changed, apart from the removal of the gate and wall at the front of the communal garden. It now accommodates 7 residents rather than 12. Management passed to the Family Welfare Association in 1987, which received grants from the Housing Association and Merton Council. In 1997 management then passed to Anchor Housing Association, and, after a brief interim period under United St Saviour’s Charity, in 2013 it passed to Croydon Almshouse Charities. The history of Croydon Almshouse Charities dates from 1447 when the original founder, Elias Davy, a Citizen and Mercer of the City of London, bought a piece of land in what was then the centre of Croydon.