Juxon's Almshouses

John Juxon, sugar baker and member of the Merchant Taylors' Company, bought the manor of East Sheen and West Hall from Thomas Whitfield in 1619. Juxon made a number of charitable donations in his will of 17 August 1626. This will left the churchwardens of Mortlake an annuity of £5 4s. for them "to pay 6d. each every Sunday to four poor widows in four houses or rooms to be appointed; also an annuity of £3 18s. to buy gowns for the four widows every three years, embroidered with his initials, also stockings and smocks".

John's son, who was also called John, built the almshouses in 1631. They were originally located at the end of Church Path close to the Upper Richmond Road. The drawing above of the almshouses is thought to be by Edward Hassell. The photograph on the left shows the almshouses with the mock-Tudor house on the Upper Richmond Road in the background.

In 1871 four widows occupied the almshouses, but at No.1, along with Mrs Harriet Pepper aged 71, there was also her sister and two grandchildren. In the years that followed, widows were resident in each of the four almshouses on Census night. Mrs Emma Timpson at No.2 appears in both the 1891 and 1901 Census, as does Mrs Elizabeth Blackburn, who in 1901 was aged 84.

The present Juxon's Almshouses are located in Milton Road and consist of three one-bedroom dwellings which are owned and run by the Richmond Charities. They are shown in William Lewis Turner's drawing of 1911, the year in which they were built by John Whitcombe. The site of the original almshouses can still be identified today as the vacant area on Church Path just before it approaches the Upper Richmond Road.