History
Detail of Chapel interior
History of the chapel
Early history
Caroline Gardens Chapel, in Peckham, forms the heart of London’s largest complex of almshouses originally known as the Licenced Victuallers’ Benevolent Institution Asylum.
However, despite being called an “asylum”, the grade-II-listed site was not a home for lunatics. Instead, the word was used in its older sense of “sanctuary” and it was in fact an old folks’ home for retired pub landlords (or “decayed members of the trade” as they were known at the time).
The welfare state still being over 100 years in the future, almshouses were an important part of life, offering impoverished Georgian and Victorian elderly people the only alternative to destitution or the workhouse. Residents were entitled to a small weekly cash payment, coal, medical care and medicine.
Dating the chapel between 1827 and 1833, architectural historian Nicolaus Pevsner describes the six-acre complex as “the only grand composition among the many almshouses of Camberwell. Exceptionally large”. Other almshouses in Southwark included those of the Girdlers’ Company and the Metropolitan Beer and Wine Trade Society.
At that time, North Peckham was an area of market gardens and fields adjacent to the largely unbuilt-up Old Kent Road and a middle-class area called Peckham New Town, which was the first local example of planned development. However, rural or not, 10,000 people are reported to have watched the opening ceremony.
At the time, the chapel was the beating heart of the community. A contemporary account declared that: “The services are bright and, though eminently congregational, are partly choral. The excellence of the congregational singing is mainly due to the establishment, some years since, of the Licensed Victuallers’ Choral Association, composed chiefly of the younger members of the various families who attend the Asylum Chapel.”
The chapel is described as having “an organ of considerable power, by Messrs Bovington and Sons, erected by voluntary contributions” while the walls bore “several costly tablets to the memory of benefactors, the most conspicuous being them to HRH the Duke of Sussex and HRH the Prince Consort”. Most of these carved stone memorials are still there.
In 1858 the Albert Wing was added, and opened by the Prince Consort himself, adding 31 more dwellings. As a result, a 16ft statue of Albert was unveiled in the middle of the lawn outside. It was unveiled in 1864 by the Prince of Wales after Albert’s death in 1861.
World War Two to the present day
During the Second World War, the LVBI evacuated its tenants to Denham, in Buckinghamshire. The asylum was bombed, and the chapel was almost completely gutted by an incendiary device, with the astonishing exception of its important stained-glass windows and fascinating collection of carved stone funerary monuments.
After the war, the chapel was stabilised and made watertight by filling the crypt with concrete and adding a rudimentary asbestos-cement roof.
The board of management decided that it preferred the new site in Buckinghamshire and, in 1959, the last tenants moved to Denham, along with the statue of Prince Albert. The asylum was sold to LB Southwark in 1960, which to this day uses it as social housing. Southwark renamed it “Caroline Gardens” after Caroline Secker, a former resident and widow of James Secker, who was the marine in the Battle of Trafalgar (1805) said to have caught Nelson when he fell.
Although the cottages are still in use, the chapel was never really used again. In 1960, the local paper described how it was to become “a little theatre”. However, this did not come to pass.
Around 1977, plans were put forward for the chapel’s restoration by the Jubilee Celebrations Committee. At that point, it was being used as a costume store by LB Southwark’s “Entertainments Department”. It was felt that just £20,000 would be enough to restore “the roof, internal walls, guttering, plasterwork, bricks and windows.”
This endeavour came to nothing and, apart from evidence of a temporary wooden room having been built inside the chapel for use by artists in the 1990s, the building appears to have been disused ever since.
In 2010 Jo Dennis and Dido Hallett took over the space to run as an art space and to facilitate filming projects.
Looks stunning I hope you manage to get it into a usable state. All the best for 2011 Nick
In the 60s both my wife and I worked in the welfare office alongside the entrance to C G
we had no idea there was a chapel in the grounds.
They are showing an amazing Play at the place now. The play is called: Something About You (makes me want to hurt you)
It’s been over a year in the making – and is our first full production since Bacchaefull (Time Out, Fringe Show of the Year).
Dates: 6th-20th October, excluding 10th, 11th, 16th
Tickets £15 / £9.50 conc Booking: http://www.ticketweb.co.uk Tel: 08444771000
Looking forward to seeing what lies beyond those huge doors.
But who lives in the alms houses of Caroline Gardens?
I
John Challis, who was a brother of my 3 x great grandfather William Challis, was a Licensed Victualler in London who ended his days with his wife Mary at the Asylum. He is shown living there in the 1861 Census. I wonder if any of the Funerary Monuments in the Chapel mentioned above relate to them? Did burials take place there? Good luck to those who are endeavouring to preserve this wonderful place.
[...] many years but it has recently been adopted as an arts space by a group that calls itself ‘Asylum‘. Tomorrow, Saturday 8th December, it will be hosting a performance of ‘Christmas [...]
[...] the history from the owners website, everything you need to know about The Asylum can be found HERE. The location can be hired for all sorts of events and there were people chatting to the owner [...]
It is open for visits ?
Yes, follow this blog for news updates and information on when we open to the public.
Some more history – In 1826, a group of members of the licensed victualling trade formed a society, named the Licensed Victuallers’ Asylum, to relieve decayed and aged members of their trade, and their wives or widows. The following year, they acquired land in the Old Kent Road, Camberwell, on which they subsequently erected 103 separate dwellings to serve as almshouses. HRH Duke of Sussex, who became patron of the institution, laid the first stone on 28th May 1828. The institution not only provided homes but other benefits including weekly money allowances, coal, medical advice and medicine. The asylum was incorporated by royal charter in 1842. In 1921, the asylum was renamed the Licensed Victuallers’ Benevolent Institution( LVBI) , which last appears in the London Post Office directories in 1960. The LVBI buildings on the Old Kent Road were badly damaged by bombing during WW2 and fortunately, are undergoing restoration as funds permit. They are Grade II listed and have been in the care of Southwark council since the LVBI moved to a different location in the 1960s. The place is now called Caroline Gardens after a former resident, Caroline Seeker. Despite being called an “asylum”, the now grade-II-listed site was not a home for lunatics. Instead, the word was used in its older sense of “sanctuary” and it was in fact an old folks’ home for retired pub landlords (or “decayed members of the trade” as they were known at the time).
Whilst researching my family history I discovered that John Challis, who was a brother of my 3 x great grandfather William Challis, was a Licensed Victualler in London who ended his days with his wife Mary at the Asylum. He is shown living there in the 1861 Census.
John died at The Asylum on 12th September 1868. His Death Notice in “The Era” newspaper reads as follows:-
“Died on the 12th inst., at No. 115 Licensed Victuallers’ Asylum, Asylum Road, Mr John Challis, aged seventy-six years, formerly of the Kings Arms, Little James Street, Bedford Row, which house he kept for upwards of twelve years”.
His wife Mary died at The Asylum on November 26th 1865.
I wonder if any of the Funerary Monuments in the Chapel mentioned above relate to them? Did burials take place there? Good luck again to those who are endeavouring to preserve this wonderful place.
Thank you,
Bryan
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