The Fishmonger's Almhouses, St Peter's Hospital, East Hill, Wandsworth.
“The Fishmongers’ Almshouses, which formerly stood at the corner of St George’s Road and Newington Butts, were built in 1618 at the expense of several members of the Company on ground bought from Jacob Smith.
John Aubrey relates that they were named St Peter’s Hospital by King James I ‘as he came by it from Scotland, in allusion to St Peter, the Tutelar Saint of the Fishmongers’.
They were described in 1814 as ‘twenty-two neat houses in
three Courts, with a garden behind, and having a neat Chapel’. South of them
and within the same enclosure was another almshouse, founded by James Hulbert
of the Fishmongers’ Company in 1719 for 42 men and women. The almshouses stood
with but little alteration until 1851, when they were moved to Wandsworth.”
The Wandsworth site and its contents were sold off and closed in
1923; the black and white photo shows it in a sorry state of affairs some six
years later, during the construction of the East Hill Estate.
Image below from the London Picture Archive.
1827.
John Chessell Buckler, (1793-1894).
View of the statue of Mr James Hulbert, in the square of the
St Peter's Hospital, commonly known as Fishmongers' Almshouses, in Newington
Butts, Southwark.
Hulbert, who was warden of the company, left funds in his
will for the extension of the almshouses after he died in 1719. The marble
statue is by Robert Easton.
In 1724 the statue was erected in a courtyard/square in Hulbert's extension to St Peter's Hospital, Southwark, which Hulbert had funded.
When the hospital/almshouses were demolished in 1851 and rebuilt in East Hill the statue was re-erected there.
In 1923 the almshouses were
demolished again and the statue was taken to Jesus Hospital, Bray, another of
the company’s almshouses. Finally in 1978 it was moved to this garden beside
Fishmongers' Hall.
{Inscribed on the south face of the plinth:}
In memory of Mr. James Hulbert late citizen and Fishmonger of London deceased, the worthy benefactor who recommended ye care of building the Almeshouses in this square to Urban Hall, Robt. Oxwick, Esqrs and Mr. Richard West, members of ye said company, this statue was erected in the year of our Lord 1724.
Robt. Oxwick Esq. - Primewarden
Mr. William Proctor, Mr. William Parrot, Mr. Samuel Palmer, Mr. Samuel Walters, Mr. John Towers - Wardens
Anno Dom 1724.
The sculptor Robert Easton died in 1726. - He was Mason to the Fishmongers Company
