arity._--Paddington is singularly deficient in
almshouses, the only houses of the kind having been pulled down between
1860 and 1870. These stood opposite the Vestry Hall, and are mentioned
below. The Almshouse Charity includes the charity of Frances King. It is
described as having been mentioned first on the Court Rolls of the manor
of Paddington in 1720, but Lysons, in referring to the same charity,
says: "Several small almshouses were built at the parish expense in the
year 1714." There were seventeen of these almshouses in all, inclusive
of four built by Samuel Pepys Cockerell. Two of them were used as rooms
by the master and mistress of the Charity School. Some of these houses
must have been pulled down previous to the year 1853, for at that date
the Vestry applied for permission to pull down the twelve almshouses in
the Harrow Road, considering that the estate could be more
advantageously administered. It was not until 1867, however, that the
order of the Court of Chancery was finally obtained, and after the
demolition part of the land was let on a building lease. Another part,
with a frontage to the Harrow Road, was let also on a building lease
1869. The houses erected on this are Nos. 111, 113, 115, 117, 119,
Harrow Road. Frances King's Charity was L200, given by will in 1845 to
be expended in coals for the inhabitants of the above-mentioned
almshouses. The total income of the Almshouse Charity is somewhere about
L200; of this amount the trustees pay a yearly sum of L50 to the
trustees of St. Mary's School, and the remainder is applied to necessary
expenses, and to pensions of L10 to L12 a year to deserving candidates
in the parish.

Denis Chirac left in 1777 a sum of L100 (Report Charity Commissioners;
Lysons says L138) for the benefit of the poor children of the parish.
This amount, together with L120 given by Baron Maseres, was applied to
the building of a schoolroom. The old Charity School, still standing
near the site of the almshouses, was built in 1822 upon copyhold land
granted for the purpose by the Bishop. St. Mary's Schools at present
stand near the spot in Church Place.

_Abourne's Charity_ was left in 1767. It is at present L300 in stock,
and produces an annual income of from L8 to L9, distributed in bread
among the poor of the parish.

_Simmonds' Charity_ consists of the dividends on L600 stock, from which
an annual income of from L16 to L20 is distributed among poor women of
the parish in sums