What Are Your Thoughts On These Almshouses Or Almshouses In General?

AScarletSabre-PGOAScarletSabre-PGO Posts: 754 ✭✭✭✭✭

The below are quite historic, but I had a different set of almshouses rejected before. These ones host splendid gardens as part of a communal courtyard. I am unsure if they are still used as almshouses. There's also some alms-houses (no longer in use) in a nearby village I could nominated.

Although they are private space, as long as at least one person can safely access them then they should be good, I was told. That's why the sports pitch at the Police HQ got accepted after all. Not accessible to the public at large but still valid.


Comments

  • GearGlider-INGGearGlider-ING Posts: 1,335 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited March 2021

    As long as Almhouses aren't residential private property, it should be an ineligible area for wayspots to exist, but I don't think Almhouses themselves are inherently eligible. You would probably need something else of historic importance about the Almhouse aside from being a couple hundred years old (especially with ow old a lot of stuff in England is).

    You could try just submitting the courtyard garden or things in it like statues. Combining the garden with the almhouse in the submission might be causing people to reject it on the basis of the nomination being the almhouse itself.

  • AScarletSabre-PGOAScarletSabre-PGO Posts: 754 ✭✭✭✭✭

    As it says in the supplemental information, these are listed on the register of historic buildings and structures. Thus, the government body that oversees historic buildings and structures agrees with me that there is historical merit to these buildings. But I guess reviewers can feel free to disagree with the historians at Historic England as to whether or not these buildings are a worthy nomination.

  • GearGlider-INGGearGlider-ING Posts: 1,335 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Oh cool, in that case would there be any kind of historic registry plaque or sign or something similar you could take a photo of and submit? Often times I had to use the photo of the plaque to get things on historic registries approved.

  • RedsoxMark-PGORedsoxMark-PGO Posts: 52 ✭✭✭

    To my reading of the criteria, if the building is historical enough (a judgment call) and can be easily identified, it should be OK.

    But in practice, it seems most reviewers want s specific item, like a sign with a name or a plaque.

    I think this point in the Acceptance Criteria is the key one:

    "Must be a permanent physical, tangible, and identifiable place or object, or object that placemarks an area"

    I think a distinctive historical building like that with a good photo should qualify as an "identifiable place", but it seems most do not agree.

  • GearGlider-INGGearGlider-ING Posts: 1,335 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited March 2021

    Hm, might be worth a try to mention it being on the historic registry in the beginning of the description somehow. More reviewers might see it being historic that way.

  • flatmatt-PGOflatmatt-PGO Posts: 2,141 ✭✭✭✭✭

    This seems like a pretty good nomination, so my feedback is more on refinement instead of big changes.

    1. The description seems a bit wordy, kind of dry. It kind of reads like a Wikipedia article. I might work on cutting it down and rewording the first sentence so it seems more like a description and less like a definition.

    2. Your supporting info mentions what it isn't (single-family PRP or an active almshouse), but it doesn't mention what it actually is used as today. Is it owned by a historical association? Has it been converted to flats? This wouldn't torpedo the nomination for me, but it is something I would try to research.

  • TheFarix-PGOTheFarix-PGO Posts: 5,063 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited March 2021

    These are the types of locations that the criteria was originally set to bring in as Portals. I would suggest that you focus your description on the almshouse being nominated and avoid mentioning other buildings unless they have a direct relationship/history with this particular almshouse.

    But as GearGlider stated above, almshouses themselves are not eligible. But this one is eligible because it is recognized for its historical significance/impact.

  • AScarletSabre-PGOAScarletSabre-PGO Posts: 754 ✭✭✭✭✭

    From my understanding and research, the grounds these particular almshouses are part of is a kind of "retirement village" (since they only admit people retired people). It's not a single family residence because one building contains many residences and one could class them as flats. I always found them nice to look at and they are noted as of historical importance, as the links mention. Might still be wordy but this is the new description:

    "

    Grade Ⅱ listed almshouses, which are an exquisite example of a structure built using Kentish ragstone, like the much older nearby Archbishop’s Palace complex. Almshouses have their origins in the Middle Ages and provide (or provided) a place of residence for the poor and the old. These Cutbush Almshouses were built in late 1800s, with the charity itself being established in 1865 by Thomas Cutbush, who owned a number of different almshouses in the borough.

    "

  • sogNinjaman-INGsogNinjaman-ING Posts: 3,313 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Just because something is a Listed Building does not qualify it for automatic Waypoint acceptance. However, I'm happy with these Almshouses being a Waypoint as they meet several criteria. The only thing I can see that might "trigger" some rejections is the sign on the gate in your supporting photos says "private".

  • AScarletSabre-PGOAScarletSabre-PGO Posts: 754 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Well of course, many family homes are listed buildings. Naturally, a nomination being Listed building should help the nomination. I would not nominate a Listed building that does not meet the criteria, e.g. the Master's Tower next door is a fine medieval structure but it currently is used by the Sea Cadets (K-12 consideration).

  • MargariteDVille-INGMargariteDVille-ING Posts: 2,848 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Niantic has said that merely "being old" is not enough. I'd think being on a national historical register would be enough. Too bad they don't all have plaques saying so.

    I had never heard of almshouses before. That's very interesting. I found some in the States that are schools now.

  • KwyjiboHan-PGOKwyjiboHan-PGO Posts: 128 ✭✭✭
    edited March 2021

    There are two Grade II listed almshouses, and one Grade I listed almshouse within walking distance from me, all are great POIs.

    They're great POIs because they are historic buildings whose architectural/historic merit is recognised by the government. They also happen to be beautiful to look at, which is a bonus. I like the 5* submission at the top of the thread because it shows the building and not some boring plaque (which everyone seems to love).

    That they are almshouses is actually irrelevant other than them not being single family residences. I would not accept an almshouse or other old people's home if it were not listed.

    There are hundreds of thousands of listed buildings in the UK, and I'm happy for all of them to be POIs if they're not emergency/school/single-family/etc. Use the map view on Historic England and submit them. They are vastly more interesting and valuable than the auto-approved UK dreck which you should reject https://www.reddit.com/r/NianticWayfarer/comments/f4zgv6/current_state_of_wayfarer_in_the_uk/

  • silverkali-INGsilverkali-ING Posts: 92 ✭✭✭

    I really like Almshouse portals, and have submitted some in the past. However, they will get rejected if there is evidence of members of the public living in them and/or if each Almshouse has it's own entrance then they tend to get rejected as Private Residential Property.

  • KwyjiboHan-PGOKwyjiboHan-PGO Posts: 128 ✭✭✭

    I previously said this was a 5* nom, and I'd be correct if it wasn't already a POI named "College Gatehouse", which is a shame, because this description is probably way better.

    It's a duplicate, but you can always edit the existing POI.

  • AScarletSabre-PGOAScarletSabre-PGO Posts: 754 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited March 2021
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