Wyatts Almshouses

The Wyatts Almshouses, now eight flats with a chapel, were originally built in 1622 for Richard Wyatt, the Master Carpenter of the Carpenters’ Company of London. The buildings were altered in the 20th century. They are constructed of orange-red brick in English bond, with some Bargate rubble stone, and have plain tile roofs.

The almshouses are arranged symmetrically, with ten single-cell units flanking a central, projecting gabled chapel. Each cell has a round-arched board door with a chamfered architrave, and a three-light, chamfered brick-mullioned casement window with stanchions and diamond-leaded lights to both floors, those on the first floor set beneath the gables.

The chapel has a central entrance with a later panelled door set in a chamfered, flat-arched recess with a hoodmould. Above the entrance are triple arched windows within a stone surround, having a stone sill, old glazing, a hoodmould, and a clock face in the head of the central window. A chamfered recess above contains a painted panel with a coat of arms and an inscription recording the almshouses’ foundation. The chapel has raised verges with stone coping and ten stacks with coupled flues to the rear, topped by a weather vane.

At the rear, the ground floor is of rubble stone. The rear elevation is dominated by external stacks of galleted rubble stone with brick plinths, quoins, and upper parts, featuring offsets and coupled diagonally-set flues with tabling. Between the stacks are paired doors within stop-chamfered timber surrounds; some original battened board doors remain, while others have been replaced with windows, all now with weather-boarded lean-to porches. A squint fire-window, for lighting an inglenook, is incorporated into the side of each stack. The chapel has a segmental-arched window opening, a window with an arched central light, and a chamfered slit vent in the gable. The returns to the building each have a small chamfered window.

Internally, the almshouses feature chamfered, Tudor-arched brick fireplaces, with side bread-ovens to the large, ground-floor fireplaces; stop-chamfered joists; and brick partition walls supporting cross-beams. The chapel boasts braced, collared-rafter roof trusses with a central, chamfered and stopped tie-beam. It also contains benches along the walls fronted by panelled rails, one of which has a newel-type post supporting a hexagonal iron collecting box. A plain box pulpit is located on the rear wall, alongside the Commandment Tables. A brass commemorating the gift of Richard Wyatt (d.1619) depicts Wyatt and his children, all kneeling.