We are an ancient, endowed charity based in the north of the London borough of Southwark. The main St George the Martyr Charity can trace its history back to 1584, when a Stephen Skydmore left money to the church of St George the Martyr in Borough High Street to help "the poor of the parish". Other rich merchants added to the funds over the following 400 years and we are entirely funded by income from this endowment. The Charity is now independent of the church and we provide support to people of all faiths and none.

The Charity’s funds may be used to relieve “hardship, need and distress” amongst the residents of our Area of Benefit, which is the former (pre-1965) Metropolitan Borough of Southwark (MAP) . We do this by providing grants to individuals, and by supporting older people through the provision of social opportunities, homecare services, pastoral care and limited financial assistance.

In May 2024 we absorbed another endowed charity, the Surrey Dispensary, into St George the Martyr Charity. Surrey Dispensary was founded in 1777 to administer advice and medicine to the poor in the north of what is now the London Borough of Southwark. Originally the Dispensary was a physical building, located first in Montague Street and later, from 1927, in Falmouth Road. The Falmouth Road building was closed in 1971, after which the Dispensary existed only as an endowed charitable fund.

The income from the fund is to be applied “for the purpose of relieving in cases of need persons … who are sick, convalescent, disabled, handicapped [sic] or infirm by providing or paying for items, services or facilities which are calculated to alleviate the suffering or assist the recovery of such persons in such cases but are not readily available to them from other sources.”

The area of benefit for the Surrey Dispensary fund is the same as for St George the Martyr Charity plus the former (pre-1965) Metropolitan Borough of Bermondsey (MAP). The fund is used to provide grants to individuals who live in the area of benefit.

PLEASE NOTE THAT NONE OF OUR STAFF WORK ON FRIDAYS