Catalogue description Records of the Tailors Benevolent Institution for the Relief of Aged and Infirm

Despite a few gaps in the minute books, the most regrettable being the absence of the first minute book, the records give a clear picture of the development of a trade benevolent enterprise. The gaps are in part compensated for by the survival of accounts and cash books from the foundation of the Institution and by a diary for 1837 belonging probably to the first secretary. The records are in good condition. The present President has retained the surviving correspondence.

Tailors Benevolent Institution, 1837

The Benevolent Institution was established in February 1837, perhaps partly in response to the tailors' strike of 1834/5, and was incorporated in 1859. It was intended to provide a fund for the relief of aged and infirm journeyman - tailors and to provide an asylum for them and their wives. Firms and individuals, masters and journeymen, could be members upon payment of an annual subscription. Journeymen became eligible for relief after three years' membership and out-pensioners were chosen and inmates of the Asylum elected by the board of directors. In 1839 the first annual Dinner was held which, with the donations solicited at it, supplemented the Institution's income.

According to an aged journeyman in 1897 'The men had [before the establishment of the Institution] two ordinary houses in Vauxhall Bridge Road, which the houses of call and shops used to support when the Society used to meet at the Dog and Gun' (the Institution met in Sackville Street until July 1952). The first stone of the Institution's Asylum in Prince of Wales Road, Haverstock Hill, was laid by the Marquis of Salisbury in May 1842. Four of the houses were built by subscription, the other six being paid for by John Stulz, a wealthy West End tailor who was the founder and first president of the Institution and who also built and endowed the chapel, consecrated by Bishop Blomfield in June 1843. The pensioners remained at Haverstock Hill until 1937 when the expense of maintaining the now out-dated buildings became too great and it was decided to sell the site. New 'Nursing and Rest Homes' in Shirley, Pampisford Road, South Croydon, were opened in November that year. In 1950 it was decided to sell this property and to move to a new home at 2 North Drive, Wandsworth, which was opened in July 1952. This in turn has now been closed but has been rebuilt by the Shaftesbury Housing Association which allows the tailoring trade to use it as necessary.

• View Record
• View Record