CHARITY bosses at Worcester Municipal Charities are celebrating after bringing up a century of homes with the creation of another four flats for single homeless people in the heart of the city centre.
The new additions take the total owned by the long-running group to 68, which, together with their other 32 ‘retirement almshouses’ makes it a grand total of ‘100 not out’.
Since 2012 the charity has created 68 new affordable almshouse flats for the single homeless, for which it has raised the money by selling some commercial properties. Homes England then came in, and offered a generous grant of £200,000 which made the whole project immediately viable.
The four flats were created from two ancient former warehouse annexes for the old Anderson and Virgo’s Chemists shop at 12 Foregate Street.
When it closed down and became the Good News Shop, the warehouses became surplus to requirements and deteriorated over the years. They were landlocked, so repairs were problematic and they were taken over by pigeons.
For a short time they were used as offices by Citizens’ Advice but were no longer needed after the pandemic.
The appointed architects for the building works were Lett & Sweetland, with builders D & S Contractors. The very high quality of the conversion and fitting out was generally the subject of much admiration on the day.
The two buildings are now owned by the Hopmarket Charity, who have leased them to the Municipal Charities to refurbish as flats, in return for some of the net rent.
The flats are to be let and managed on behalf of the charity by SmartLets, a specialist lettings agency which is part of Worcester Citizens Advice, based at their offices at The Old Glove Factory on Lowesmoor.
Unlike other housing associations, Worcester Municipal Charities provide free white goods and carpets, which help hard up homeless occupants afford to move in without taking on huge loans. There is also free help available from Armchair the Furniture Recycling Charity, and from Maggs the Homelessness Charity who have a free domestic crockery and cutlery store at their offices in the Tything.
Richard Inglethorpe, in whose memory the for flats have been named, was a wealthy benevolent brewer, who originally donated six almshouses to the charity.
Inglethorpe’s will of 1618 ordained that the almshouses should be awarded to : “Six poor men of the said city being of honest life and report, and such as are either very aged, blind, lame, sick of the palsy, or falling sickness, and by reason of their age or infirmity of body, are not able to work and labour for their living, and also one poor woman, being likewise of honest life and report, and of the age of 50 years at the least, or upwards, which woman shall wash the clothes of the said six poor men, make their beds and attend upon them in all times of their sickness to help them and provide things necessary for them.”
Charity chairman Paul Griffith said: “We won’t be appointing a similar handmaiden here, as I understand times have changed since then, and that some men may even make their own beds!”
