Linked charities

Grants

Three charities, administered together as the Lewisham Parochial & Almshouse Charities from an office at Lloyd Court. They make small grants to people — and to organisations — within the ancient parish.

Are you in the ancient parish?

This is the old parish boundary rather than the modern London Borough, and the two are not the same — the borough took in Deptford, Lee, Downham and part of Sydenham long afterwards. A Lewisham address is not by itself an answer. The charities publish a map you can search by postcode, and it is worth checking before filling anything in. If you want to know why the line runs where it does, and which places are inside it, we have written that up: the ancient parish.

Applying

The forms for Relief in Need and the Educational Charity are on the charities’ grants page. Organisations applying to the General Trust write to the Finance and Administration Manager instead, setting out the project and who it helps.

• Send it at least two weeks before the trustees meet. They meet quarterly, so missing a meeting means waiting for the next one.
• Send every supporting document with it. Incomplete applications are not considered — they are not chased up.
• Expect a decision about 21 days after the meeting.

Grant enquiries: [email protected] · 0203 457 5550 · Lloyd Court, Slagrove Place, Ladywell, London SE13 7LP

Almshouse flats

Thirty-two self-contained flats across two schemes, for people over 60 who are in financial hardship and can live independently. An almshouse is not a care home and not quite a tenancy: residents are beneficiaries of the charity rather than tenants, which is a genuine legal difference and worth asking the clerk about before applying.

Instead of rent there is a weekly maintenance contribution, between £120 and £160 depending on the flat and reviewed every year. It covers heating, lighting and the cleaning of communal areas. Council tax is the resident’s own, as is metered electricity. (Figures as published by the charities in August 2026.)

Lloyd Court, Ladywell

Twenty-one flats off Slagrove Place, SE13 7LP, run by the Lewisham Relief in Need Charity. There is a communal lounge, a kitchen, a laundry, a garden, and a guest room for when family stay.

Lloyd Court enquiries and viewings: [email protected] · 078 4101 9421

Colfe & Hatcliffe Glebe

Eleven flats at 347 Lewisham High Street — directly across the road from the church — with a communal lounge, kitchen, laundry and garden. The charity is the Lewisham Almshouse Charities of William Hatcliffe and Abraham Colfe, registered charity 228514.

Glebe enquiries go to its own clerk: [email protected] · FAO Clerk, Colfe & Hatcliffe Glebe, 347 Lewisham High Street, London SE13 6NY

This is the oldest of them and the closest to St Mary’s. Abraham Colfe came here as curate in 1604 and was Vicar of Lewisham from 1610 until his death in 1657 — forty-seven years as vicar, and over fifty in the parish — and he founded the almshouses by his will; the Leathersellers’ Company built them in 1664–66, six houses in a row either side of a small chapel, on the High Street immediately south of the church. They housed six almswomen, five of them appointed by the Vicar, who had to be single, over 60 and of good character. They stood for very nearly three centuries and were demolished in 1958 after war damage left them unfit to live in.

Colfe was a considerable figure quite apart from this — he fought off the enclosure of Westwood Common and endowed the free school that still bears his name. The same will founded both, and the Leathersellers’ Company has administered the money ever since: how a vicar’s gift became six schools follows that thread. There is a detailed history of the almshouses at Long Lazy Lewisham, and more about the parish’s own past on our history pages.

The Glebe is granting only temporary licences at present while its redevelopment is considered. If you are applying, ask the clerk what that means for you before you go far into the process.

How the application works

It is a longer process than most housing applications, and knowing the shape of it in advance makes it much less daunting:

1. Ring or write to ask whether anything suitable is likely. Forms are kept on file when there is no vacancy.
2. Send in the application form.
3. When a flat comes free you are invited to view it, and two trustees visit you at home.
4. Interviews with three or four trustees, sometimes twice.
5. An offer, conditional on a report from your doctor and background checks. You will also be asked to nominate a next of kin.

Apply to whichever scheme you are interested in, using its own address above. More at lpcharities.co.uk and lewishamglebe.co.uk.

The St Mary’s Centre

The former church halls on Ladywell Road, now run by a separate charity — St Mary Lewisham Youth Centre, registered charity 269465 — with its own trustees. The halls are available to hire for parties, live music, conferences, classes and meetings, and a good deal of the week is already given over to community groups.

• Where. Ladywell Road, London SE13 7UW — a few minutes from Ladywell station, with buses 122, 282, 484 and P4 stopping at Wearside Road.
• Access. All on the ground floor, step-free into the foyer and the meeting room, with modern WCs. Parking on site is limited.
• Booking. By telephone or email — there is no online booking, and no website.

St Mary’s Centre: 020 8690 2501 · [email protected]

The Centre is not the same as the parish’s own rooms. If you are looking to hire the church itself or the crypt room beneath it, those are ours and are on the room and venue hire page.