You may have seen the plaque on the side of a building in Cumbergate declaring the almshouse was built at the bequest of a Miss Pears and was built in 1903, what you won't be aware of is the story that it took to erect the building.
The bequest was simple: to rebuild the almshouses on Cumbergate or on another suitable site. £5,000 was given to the Feoffees who were in charge of the almshouses, with Miss Pears' friend Mr Clarabut overseeing that her legacy was used appropriately. Miss Pears wanted to provide better accommodation for the elderly poor and she wished for her legacy to improve the charitable almshouses in which they were living.
One of the first suggestions in February of 1902 was that the almshouse site should be exchanged for another plot of land in the city so that a covered market could be built there instead. (1) This was popular with businessmen, but neither practical or indeed affordable for the council or Feoffees. The almshouse site contained two rows of buildings running almost parallel to each other along Cumbergate, with an additional building facing Exchange Street. The south west corner of the site had been the location of a mortuary and contained lavatories.
The original plan presented to the council in September 1902 suggested building a new almshouse on the corner of Cumbergate and Exchange Street that used the footing of the mortuary that had stood there. This would have been a cheaper and efficient use of the space that existed. However, the shape of the building on that corner was not square and the council were desirous that the corner should be 'set back' to make it easier for traffic to pass along the street. A second plan was drawn up that decreased the building by 4 feet (1.2m) and made it square. The western terrace was to be demolished to allow for a small garden area to be erected and to allow the hidden back row to 'be an ornament'. (2)
As photographs of the time illustrate (3), those plans were agreed upon and the new almshouse building on the corner of Cumbergate and Exchange Street was completed in 1903. The final building took up a much larger footprint than the mortuary on the site, but provided much better conditions for the new residents and for the people in the back row of almshouses who now had more light and gardens at their disposal.
All of the almshouses standing in 1903 are still in place, with the 'back row' and building facing Exchange Street being dated to 1835 with both a date over the door of the building and a plaque on the row, now sadly faded. They are often attributed to the 1903 build, but the plaque, maps and artwork reveal them to have been there from an earlier date. The original date of the demolished row is not known.
References
(1) Peterborough Advertiser, Wednesday 26th February 1902, p 7, Col. 2
(2) Peterborough Advertiser, Wednesday 3rd December 1902, p 5. col. 1
(3) Peterborough Images - Images of Cumbergate and Exchange Street
Peterborough Town Plan 1886 via Old-maps.co.uk
