Lady Ayers Homes – Houses

What became Cottage Homes Incorporated was initiated by Anglican Archdeacon Charles Marryat in 1871 but had an inter-denominational Management Committee.  The organisation’s purpose was to fund cottages for the aged poor. The Committee bought an acre of land in North Adelaide and during the 1870s and early 1880s constructed 9 row houses along Kingston Tce (the Lady Ayers Homes) and 10 along Stanley St (the Dean Marryat Homes). Externally the houses remain remarkably original. They are reminiscent of English almshouses and such row housing is quite uncommon in South Australia. The cottages are significant for their rarity and for representing the contribution of private philanthropy to meeting the needs of the less fortunate in the nineteenth century. Their ultimate subdivision and sale as private townhouses in 1972 represents another change in society’s provision of social services