When Ann Kenrick was looking for a new role after spending 20 years as head of the Franco-British council, running an alms house for the elderly in a Grade I listed medieval monastery was not top of the list. “I wasn’t looking for a CEO role in a 14th century historic site,” she chuckles.
But after hearing about the job through a friend of a friend, she felt it was time to try something new in February 2017. Social activism runs in her blood. Ann’s late father, Reverend Bruce Kenrick, founded the Notting Hill Housing Trust in 1963 when the family lived in the area and established the charity Shelter three years later.
The Charterhouse, a housing charity in a historic building, has provided housing and dining for vulnerable older people since 1611. Nowadays, 39 elderly men and women in need, known as the Brothers, call it home. “We have a whole range of people. We have artists, writers, salesmen,” Ann said. “We provide a home, but more importantly, a community for these people. They each have their own flat and can live independently but we also have a big dining hall where we come together as a community.”
It was not an easy transition though. “When I started here, I had the classic female imposter syndrome where you think, how can I take over from the guy who was a Royal Marine?” When it was announced that she would be the Master, one of the brothers nearly fell off his chair. “We were worried he’d had a stroke! How bad would that be if I’d killed someone before even starting the job?” she said.
When women Brothers were allowed for the first time under her tenure one of the male Brothers complained that they wouldn’t be able to have banter at the dinner-table (“it changes the dynamic”). “I thought, well that’s probably a good thing. Banter is often shorthand for something else which isn’t quite so nice. But they were definitely a minority and if you asked any of the men here, they’d say why didn’t we do it earlier?”
Ann was adamant that the Charterhouse should open its gardens to the public during the Covid-19 pandemic. “Islington has the least green space of any borough in London. When I came in, I said, let’s open the square outside to the public. We have it shut on Mondays. But during lockdown, I said, let’s open it seven days a week because people need to get out. They need to have some space to walk around.”
She is constantly looking for opportunities to bring in new investment to keep the social housing charity and preserve the historic building. “The Charterhouse is a 400-year-old start-up,” she laughs. As a parting gift, Ann will launch an appeal named Project650 on 11 May to reflect the six-and-a-half-centuries since the creation of the Charterhouse. She seeks to raise £650,000 to preserve the historic Norfolk Cloister, where it is said that the fourteenth-century school pupils at the Charterhouse first invented football’s offside rule. The appeal aims to raise 650 donations of £1,000 to mark each year between 1371 and now. “Some people have chosen to donate for their father’s birth date. Someone else the year of the Battle of Agincourt. Another really hates Henry VII so he chose his year of death!”
Ann hopes that her campaigning efforts will mean the Charterhouse can support Brothers for the next 400 years. “Historic buildings need to be looked after and that’s the real challenge”.
“If I have a legacy, I want it to be that the Brothers are happy and comfortable in their home, that they see it as a home and that they are involved in the community.”
How does she feel about leaving? “It’s the right time. I’m pleased with the work we have done. I’ve just had lunch with our female Brothers to celebrate International Women’s Day. Six of the 39 Brothers are now women. It changed the atmosphere and helped create a culture of care.”
“One of the Brothers said to me: ‘What you’ve done is humanise the place. It was a bit stuffy and you’ve brought a human touch.’”
