Puma Court
Puma Court was formerly known as Red Lion
Court. The western end, opening off Red Lion
Street approximately where it now opens off Commercial Street, is shown on Ogilby and Morgan's
maps of 1677 and 1681–2. At its east end it then
communicated with another court called Lamb's
Court to its north-east. The eastern end of
Lamb's Court abutted on the west side of Joyce's
Garden and later abutted on the back gardens of
the houses on the west side of Wood (Wilkes)
Street. The eastern end of Red Lion Court, continuing the line of that court south of Lamb's
Court, was built on the Wood-Michell estate to
communicate with Wood Street when that street
was constructed.
On its north side Wood and Michell built three
houses on a frontage of about 68 feet east of the
present site of the Norton Folgate Almshouses. In
1735 the estate included eight houses in Red Lion
Court, of which three were on the north side. (ref. 174)
(fn. a)
On the south side they built on a frontage of
126 feet, this being the north side of a plot of land
including on its south side Nos. 5–11 (odd) Fournier Street.
The north and south sides of this east end of the
court were built by William Tayler under building
leases of the same date as and similar to those for
Nos. 9–15 Wilkes Street (March 1723/4), and
Nos. 1–7 Wilkes Street (February 1721/2)
respectively. (ref. 175)
All the court has been rebuilt, the south side
mainly as a row of shops in the first half of the
nineteenth century.
Red Lion Court Chapel
Demolished
A chapel on the north side of the court near its
western end is first shown on Horwood's map of
1799. In 1807 George Evans, a Calvinistic
Methodist of Whitfield's persuasion, became the
minister of a congregation here, in what was in
1846 described as a small but ancient Independent
church. (ref. 176) In or shortly before 1810 he had
moved to the chapel in Mile End New Town, (ref. 177)
taking at least part of his congregation with him.
Some of them, however, may have stayed behind;
in 1810 the Red Lion Court meeting was called
’Calvinistic’ and is listed as being under a Mr.
Yeerd. (ref. 177) This is the last known reference to the
chapel. It appears no longer to have existed in
c. 1848–9 when the northern part of Commercial
Street was projected. (ref. 178)
Norton Folgate Almshouses, Puma
Court
In November 1858 the Commissioners of
Works, who had in 1851 acquired the Norton
Folgate Almshouses in Blossom Terrace for
£2,400 to form part of the line of Commercial
Street (see page 92), agreed to sell to the alms-house trustees for £1,500 a piece of ground with
a 54–foot frontage on Commercial Street and a
118–foot frontage on the north side of Red Lion
(Puma) Court, (ref. 179) which they had purchased in
1849–50. In July 1859 the Commissioners conveyed the site to the trustees. (ref. 180) Almshouses
were built in 1860 on the easternmost 70 feet of
the court frontage, in two blocks, each accommodating eight inmates in two storeys, with a common staircase in each block. The architect was
T. E. Knightley, of 25 Cannon Street, and
the builders Messrs. Pritchard, probably Jane
Pritchard and Son, of 29 Steward Street, Old
Artillery Ground. The buildings cost £1,400.
In December 1861 the western part of the site
was leased for eighty years by the trustees for the
erection of Nos. 92, 94 and 96 Commercial
Street, the income being used for the upkeep of
the almshouses, which were unendowed. The
trustees met in the Norton Folgate court house. (ref. 181)
The almshouses comprise two identical buildings, two storeys high and of cottage character,
placed at right angles to Puma Court and facing
each other across a narrow court. The walls
are of yellow stocks, with a corbelled brick band
between the storeys, and a narrow stone coping to
the pediment-like gable-ends of the return
elevations. There are two windows in each storey
of the return elevations and three in the upper
storey of the front, with the doorway between two
windows in the ground storey. The doorway
has a round arch, and the windows have segmental
arches of brick, now stained yellow. The wooden
shutters to the ground-floor windows have heart
shaped peepholes, a romantic conceit adding to the
cottage-like character of the buildings. On the
return front of the west block is a tablet inscribed:
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
followed by the names of ten trustees.