Victorian London - Houses and Housing - Housing of the Poor

Victorian London - Houses and Housing - Housing of the Poor - Bancroft's Alms Houses

BANCROFT'S ALMS HOUSES, MILE END, (for 24 poor men of the Drapers' Company), and SCHOOL, (for 100 boys), erected in the year 1735, pursuant to the will of Francis Bancroft, (grandson of Archbishop Bancroft), who left the sum of 28,000l. and upwards to the Company of Drapers, for their erection and endowment. Bancroft was an Officer of the Lord Mayor's Court, and is said to have acquired his fortune by harsh acts of justice in his capacity as a City officer; by unnecessary informations and arbitrary summonses. His tomb, erected in his life-time, is in the church of St. Helen, Bishopsgate. He left lands to keep it in repair. There is an engraving of it by J.T.Smith.

Peter Cunningham, Hand-Book of London, 1850