12-15, THE COLLEGE

Nos. 12–15, The College, Durham

This group of four houses with offices occupies the west end of The College in Durham and incorporates part of the medieval Priory Guest Hall. The complex represents a palimpsest of building activity from the medieval period through to the 19th century, with substantial rebuilding and remodelling in the late 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.

The buildings are arranged in an L-plan with No. 12 projecting at the left and No. 14 extruded to the centre. A passage running through all three buildings at basement level connects to the river banks. The rear elevations, which rise high over the river banks, retain considerable medieval masonry, including the principal window of No. 13 and garderobe drains from No. 14.

No. 12 (at left), substantially remodelled in 1808 by Atkinson, is rendered in Roman cement with painted ashlar dressings and adopts a castle style. It is three storeys tall with four windows arranged across the front. The principal features include projecting corner turrets, the right turret containing a single window, and a two-storey battlemented porch in the second bay with a studded door set within a double-chamfered Tudor-arched surround. A Tudor-arched passage entry runs under the right turret. The ground-floor and first-floor windows are also Tudor-arched; the tall first-floor windows contain Perpendicular tracery. Square-headed windows above doors and on the top floor have Tudor-headed lights. All windows feature dripmoulds. An eaves string and roll-moulded battlemented parapets (higher on the turrets) complete the external composition. Two panelled chimneys, rainwater heads with shields and lugged pipe fixings, and a right return with two coats of arms and a three-step mounting block are additional details.

No. 14 (in the centre), dated 1830 above its door, is rendered in ashlar and follows a Gothic style. It is three storeys tall occupying a single bay. Access is via side steps, the lowest two of quadrant shape, leading to a Tudor-headed studded door in a deeply-chamfered surround flanked by a cusped light at the left. Above the door is an oriel window with similar cusped lights, emblems and shields on the cornice. The top floor contains a single cusped window set beneath a low gable with eaves string and roll-moulded coping. The front wall of the steps is pierced by two small rectangular windows. The building features a right-angle buttress and a coat of arms on the right return above an inserted door to No. 13.

No. 15 (at right) comprises one storey set across seven bays. Wide steps lead up to a stone terrace in front of a boarded door in the third bay, which features elaborate hinges and a three-light overlight beneath a flat stone lintel. Chamfered quoins appear at the right end. Tall three-light windows with wood mullions and transoms are set beneath flat stone lintels and sills; at basement level, double-chamfered two-light windows are present. An eaves band and moulded parapet string with coping complete the main elevation. The basement retains part of a medieval jamb at the left with two shafts. Rendered brick chimneys and a square gas lamp on an iron bracket at the left of the door are notable features. The rear elevation, which rises high over the river banks, displays substantial medieval masonry.

Interiors

The passage to the river bank is tunnel-vaulted. At the left a round-headed door opens to an undercroft with round columns supporting wide-chamfered ribs of quadripartite vaults. This medieval structure is overlaid post-Reformation by thick east-west walls. The porch contains a rib vault and an inner Tudor-style door; a central open-string stair of one flight leads to a long landing with Gothick balustrades. First-floor octagonal vestibules feature Tudor-arched doors and niches.

Behind Nos. 12 and 14 are rooms of 17th- and 18th-century date, some panelled. One circa 1700 room retains fielded panelling and a corniced chimney-piece with 19th-century iron fire-shutters. Other decoration is Gothick in character, with Tudor chimney-pieces, bookcases, crested pelmets and panelled shutters; cornices vary throughout. Behind the main rooms are further spaces with 17th- and 18th-century elements: some panelled, one featuring a scroll-bracketed corniced chimney-piece with architraves and cornices to corner closets and a pedimented doorcase. Additional rooms display Tudor-arched chimney-pieces, Gothic corbels and panelled ceilings with wide glazing bars and panelled shutters. The top room retains deeply-moulded roof beams of late 16th- or early 17th-century date. Early 19th-century Gothick doors from the stairs provide access to all rooms.

No. 15 contains an early 18th-century stucco ceiling in one room and rococo decoration in another; 18th-century chimney-pieces and panelled door reveals are also present.

No. 13 retains much medieval masonry. It features a rebated and chamfered two-centred arched door to the north, with two-centred and shouldered arches elsewhere. Stone corbels support massive chamfered beams. Red paint decorates stone and woodwork. A garderobe closet and a massive stone lintel over the former kitchen fire are present; the lintel bears spit machinery marked with the founder's name W. Moore. The bedroom is finished with bolection-moulded panelling and a deeply-moulded stucco cornice.