Great Gateway To Kepier Hospital (That Part Within The Civil Parish Of Belmont)

The Great Gateway to Kepier Hospital, located within the civil parish of Belmont, is a 14th-century hospital gatehouse. It is constructed from coursed squared sandstone with ashlar dressings and features a pantiled roof, stone gable copings, and brick chimneys. The building has a T-plan layout, is two storeys high, and consists of three bays.

The central bay features a two-centred arch supported by shafts, with a drip string and a blind quatrefoil frieze above. There is a two-centred-arched window above this arch, with casements beneath a drip mould. A top string runs along the second storey under the gable. Flanking the arch are buttresses with plinths and offsets. The left bay has a renewed boarded door beneath a stone lintel, with a blocked small window directly above it, and a chamfered lintel above a small first-floor window. The right bay contains a small elliptical-headed opening on the ground floor and a small square casement above.

The gateway features two quadripartite vaults on corbels, with a central arch; however, the bosses are eroded and missing, and there are small openings in the side walls. The rear elevation includes a polygonal stair turret to the north of the arch, with a stone stair leading to a first-floor Tudor-arched doorway and a carved kneeler on the north gable.

Inside, there is a segmental-headed fireplace in the north room, a double-chamfered arch on responds in the south room, and several two-centred-arched doorways in the upper rooms, along with part of a spiral stair in the turret. The stonework is heavily eroded. This structure is partly situated in the parishes of Durham and Framwellgate and is designated as a scheduled ancient monument.