poplar

The East India Company Hospital (or Almshouses)in 1799.

The East India Company Hospital (or Almshouses) in 1799. In the early 1800s new almshouses were built in the form of a quadrangle for occupation by the sailors, and a group of houses for commanders and mates. These almshouses were maintained until 1866, when the occupants were pensioned off and the buildings pulled down. Their site, with the ground immediately behind them, which had been used as an allotment for the use of those occupying the almshouses, in all about five acres, was purchased at a cost of £12,000 by the Poplar Board of Works, and in 1867 opened to the use of the public as the Poplar Recreation Ground. From ‘Poplar in the Past’, “The Copartnership Herald”, Vol. III, no. 32 (October 1933).