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Trinity
House, Tower Hill
Standing
on the north side of Tower Hill between Savage Gardens
and Cooper's Row stands the elegant structure of Trinity
House (former Trinity buildings had stood in Deptford
and then in Water Lane, London). The work of Samuel Wyatt,
the first stone was laid in 1793 and it was open for business
in 1795. The Society of the Trinity (or, to give it its
full name, "The Master, Wardens, and Assistants,
of the Guild or Fraternity of the most glorious and undivided
Trinity, and of St Clements, in the parish of Deptford
Stroud, in the county of Kent")was founded in the
reign of Henry VIII by Sir Thomas Spert, Comptroller of
the Navy. In the Georgian period the object of this company
was "the double preservation of the lives of seaman,
both at sea and on shore". They appointed pilots,
examined masters of ships, granted licences to poor seamen
to row on the River Thames for their support, and managed
various aspects of live aboard English ships. the company
controlled several almshouses for the support of poor
seamen or their widows and orphans at Deptford and Mile
End. In 1836 the Trinity gained control of all English
lighthouses.
