It was formed on 10 February 1837 as the
Benevolent Institution for the Relief of Aged and Infirm Journeymen Tailors. Its founder and first president was a successful West End tailor named John Stultz. It purchased land at the south end of Queens Crescent, just off
Haverstock Hill in north London, where between 1842 and 1843 it built the Tailors' Asylum. This consisted of ten
almshouses (the southernmost of which was occupied by the chaplain) and a central chapel consecrated by
Charles James Blomfield,
Bishop of London, all in brick and stone in the
neo-Gothic style designed by T Meyer. On 6 July 1859 it was granted a
royal charter. In 1937, the Institution sold off the site to the
London County Council, which built council flats on it, though the charity moved to a new building in
South Croydon and in 1952, to a third one in
Wandsworth. They finally moved out of the Wandsworth site, which was rebuilt (but kept at the disposal of the tailoring trade) as Tailors' Court by the
Shaftesbury Housing Association. The charity's records before 1965 are now at the
London Metropolitan Archives. ==References==