The Free Watermen and Lightermen’s Almshouses (generally known as the Royal Watermen's Almshouses) on Beckenham Road / Penge High Street, Penge

Penge

Penge is a suburb of London in the London Borough of Bromley. It is located south east of Charing Cross.-History:Penge was once a small town, which was recorded under the name Penceat in a Saxon deed dating from 957...

, Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

, were built in 1840–1841 to designs by the architect George Porter

George Porter (architect)

George Porter was an Early Victorian English architect, active in early to mid-nineteenth-century Kent, England.-Works:*The Free Watermen and Lightermen’s Almshouses on Beckenham Road, Penge, Kent, built 1840-1841 to designs by George Porter by the Company of Watermen and Lightermen of the City...

 by the Company of Watermen and Lightermen of the City of London

City of London

The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...

 for retired company freemen and their widows. It is the most prominent and oldest of the Victorian almshouse

Almshouse

Almshouses are charitable housing provided to enable people to live in a particular community...

s in Penge. In 1973, the almspeople were moved to a new site in Hastings, and the original buildings were converted into private homes.