The Bexley Almshouse and Relief in Need Charity

This Charity is itself an amalgamation of 14 ancient charities. By far the largest and most significant of these is the Charity of John Styleman.

John Styleman made his fortune in Java, Vietnam and India, working for and with the East India Company. Between 1692 and 1695, he was Mayor of Madras (now Chennai) on India’s Coromandel coast. In 1697, while still in India, he purchased the Danson estate (now on the borders of Bexleyheath and Welling). He returned to England in about 1699, and from then until the death of his second wife, Arabella, in 1717 he lived at least part of the time at Danson. In 1723 he leased the Danson estate to John Selwyn MP and moved to Charterhouse Yard in London. 

He died in 1734 and is buried at St. Mary’s Church, Bexley. He left his Danson estate to his fifth wife, Mary, for her lifetime, but specified that when she died, half the value of the estate should be put in trust to build and maintain almshouses for twelve families in Bexley. The almshouses were to be built on the nearest available land to St. Mary’s Church in Bexley. Mary Styleman died in 1750, and in 1755 the almshouses were built fronting on to Bexley High Street. To this day they are known as Styleman’s Almshouses. The management of the almshouses remains the principal responsibility of the Charities today. 

The front of the almshouses still look much as they did in 1755, and as such they are grade 2 listed. However, they have been updated, modernised and extended over the years. There were major refurbishments in 1961 and 1985, and we added conservatories in 2004. However, fortunately, some original features, such as the communal well in the rear garden and the external wooden privies and cesspits, have long since been replaced. 

Not much is known of the early residents of the almshouses, but there are occasional vignettes available in the Church’s records. In 1768, an Elizabeth Kidley was removed from her almshouse due to being an “immoral and an infamous character” and in the 1840s a John Crafter was given a warning for using his almshouse for the storage of stolen potatoes. 

The other 13 charities are very small and their funds, such as they are, have long been used to support the almshouses and their residents. 

The Charity is allowed to use its funds more generally to reduce the need, hardship or distress of people resident in Bexley. In the past, the Charity has supported projects that meet the wider needs of residents of Bexley. The most significant of these was the Charity’s building of the first hospital in Bexley in 1881 (the former cottage hospital in Upton Road, Bexleyheath). However, these days all available funds are used to support the almshouses and their residents.