The Old Palace

The Old Palace is a palace, later used as a YMCA hostel and now offices, dating to 1751 with 19th and 20th-century alterations. It is constructed of stone-dressed red brick with hipped grey slate roofs. The building consists of cellars and three storeys with an 11-window main block, along with a right wing and a recessed wing. A canted projecting entrance bay, likely from the later 18th century, features a replaced door flanked by 12-pane sashes in its oblique faces. The main facade has 12-pane sashes to the ground floor, and 6-pane sashes above, all recessed two-and-a-quarter inches. Rubbed brick flat arches are above the sashes, with painted stone sills and rusticated wedge lintels adorned with ornate keys. A first-floor band and sillband highlight the facade, with rainwater pipes bearing the date 1751. A modillion cornice tops the building, leading to an 8-course brick parapet with stone corner blocks and coping. The left end displays an irregular pattern of sash windows, likely replacements. A door is located at the inner corner of the right end of the main block, above which are three 12-pane sashes to the first floor and three 6-pane sashes to the second. A one-bay right wing appears to be part of the original construction. A mid-19th century stone-dressed lobby projects between the original building and a recessed three-storey, five-window wing. This wing mirrors the entrance bay’s detailing, and is canted with 12-pane sashes to each face on the ground floor, and one to each oblique face on the first and second floors. The exterior has remained largely unaltered by later changes of use. The interior has been partly sub-divided for office use, but retains notable features, including a six-flight open-well staircase with turned balusters (replacing an earlier Chinese Chippendale balustrade), a stone back stair with iron stick balusters, and replaced secondary stairs. Original six-panel doors are also present. A ground-floor room features restored panelling with rows of panels below and above the dado rail. A first-floor main room, now a boardroom, retains its coved ceiling with exuberant mid-18th-century plasterwork and other minor features of 18th-century plasterwork, along with fireplaces and overmantels. The building was constructed for Bishop Peploe in the mid-18th century, and served as the Bishop’s Palace from 1870 to 1921, when the former palace in the Cathedral Precinct was replaced by the King’s School.