These almshouses were founded by local landowner John Thackeray in 1841 to provide accommodation for 'six aged females'. Thackeray, who lived just north in a house called The Priory, died ten years later.

A symbolic event in Lewisham's transition from village to suburb was the accidental draining of the stream from Rushey Green by the building of a sewer.

After the draining of the stream and consequent loss of water supply, owners of the larger houses on the High Street had increasingly looked to their estates as potential sites for development, rather than as private residences.

A legacy of the stream is the width of the High Street and the succession of grassed islands along its west side.