profits of the said land the authorities were directed to distribute £5 amongst twenty poor widows on the 6th of September in each year ; on which occasion a sermon is preached by the minister, who receives the sum of twenty shillings for his trouble, and ten shillings are divided amongst the reader, clerk, and sexton.
The property has a frontage of about 789 feet, and is covered by about thirty houses, now known as St. Mary-le-Strand Place, and vested in the Trustees of the Charity Estates. The workhouse was erected under an Act of Parliament, in which was inserted a clause that no occupier of the workhouse should become chargeable to the
Cross, 1850 map
parish of Camberwell by virtue of residence within the said building; now that it has ceased to be used as a workhouse it is to be feared that the worthy occupier, Mr. J. A. Lyon, who is himself a poor-law guardian, could readily prove a settlement, but it would be rather difficult to find a more comfortable “settlement” than St Mary-le-Strand workhouse as at present conducted. Camberwell is a model workhouse, but St. Mary of the Old Kent Road is a delightful retreat.
Ye Parish of Camerwell W.H. Blanch (1875)
