Puma Court takes you from the frenetic energy of Commercial Street to the calm stature of the eighteenth century houses in Wilkes Street and beyond.
On the left as you head towards Wilkes Street are the Norton Folgate almshouses, which date from a rebuild in 1860 and still provide much needed homes for disadvantaged people today.
The inscription on them reads:
THESE ALMSHOUSES WERE ERECTED
IN THE YEAR 1860 FOR THE INHABITANTS
OF THE LIBERTY OF NORTON FOLGATE
IN PLACE OF THOSE BUILT IN 1728
LATELY TAKEN DOWN FOR THE NEW STREET
The almshouses are in the shadows of Christ Church, Spitalfields, which is apt as the Church along with Tower Hamlets Council administer. The church looks protectively over Puma Court and the surrounding area as it has done since built to the design of Nicholas Hawksmoor in the early 1700’s.
Puma Court used to be known as Red Lion Court but was largely rebuilt and renamed in the Georgian years, the shops on the opposite side to the almshouses being constructed in the early nineteenth century.
Puma Court looking towards Wilkes Street. The lady on the left is looking through the gates of the almshouses.
Looking through the gate of the Norton Felgate almshouses
The gates of the Norton Folgate almshouses
Outside the almshouses
The almshouses’ inscription
Towards Wilkes Street
Old shops
Shoppers head along Puma Court
Christ Church, Spitalfields, overlooks Puma Court
Towards Commercial Street