On my first visit to Penge in South London, I came across this building with its guardian dragons. It turns out to be, according to Wikipedia, The Free Watermen and Lightermen’s Almshouses (generally known as the Royal Watermen's Almshouses) on Beckenham Road / Penge High Street, Penge, Kent, which were built in 1840–1841 according to designs by the architect George Porter by the Company of Watermen and Lightermen of the City of London for retired company freemen and their widows. It is the most prominent and oldest of the Victorian almshouses in Penge. In 1973, the almspeople were moved to a new site in Hastings, and the original buildings were converted into private homes.
