Since 2000, when I turned 60, I have lived at the Hospital of St Cross, a medieval almshouse in Winchester. It was founded about 1132 by William the Conqueror’s grandson, Henry de Blois, Bishop of Winchester – as “sheltered accommodation” for old men in straitened circumstances. (It’s not a medical hospital – here the word has the same sort of implication as “hospitality”.)
I first visited the place as an Oxford undergraduate in 1960, while staying with a college friend whose father was a Winchester GP. Noting its glorious architecture – mainly 15th-century – and its tranquillity, I thought: “I might want to apply to live here one day.” When I was 60, I did so, and was accepted. We who live in the almshouse are called “Brothers”.
