Friends Meeting House

LANCASTER

SD4761NW MEETING HOUSE LANE 1685-1/6/178 (North side) 22/12/53 Friends' Meeting House

GV II*

Quaker meeting house. 1708, altered 1769, extended 1779 and 1790, and altered internally early C20 and 1969. Sandstone rubble, pebbledashed at the front. Roof of stone slate at front and slate at rear. Single-storey, with 2-storey porch and with attic storey above left-hand (west) meeting room. 3 bays to left of porch and 5 to right, with projecting ashlar quoins. Windows have painted rebated and chamfered surrounds, with hinge pins for shutters, and have glazing bar sashes, the first of which were installed in 1769 when the mullions and transoms were removed from the original cross windows. The left-hand window was added in 1789 when the small meeting room was enlarged, and the 2 right-hand windows were added when the large meeting room was extended. The porch, which was probably added in the late C18, has canted sides which each have a glazing bar sash in a plain stone surround lighting the upper room. The doorway has a cyma-moulded surround with a lintel carved with a semi-elliptical arch with keystone. The gables are coped. The left-hand gable has an ashlar chimney stack with a cornice and weathered offset. Near the junction of the porch and the main roof is a second chimney cap. The right-hand (east) gable wall is part of the 1779 extension, is of coursed squared sandstone and has a Venetian window with stone surround and Gothick glazing. Towards the east end of the rear wall a 3-light rebated and chamfered mullioned window has been exposed by the demolition of adjoining school buildings. A rear wing towards the west was added in 1852 as a warden's cottage and further additions were subsequently made at the rear as part of the former Friends' School. INTERIOR: inside the porch a chamfered doorway which led to the left-hand meeting room has a re-set datestone inscribed '1677', re-used from the first meeting house on the site. Attached to the wall is the inscribed grave slab of John Lawson, removed from the Friends' burial ground in Wyresdale Road. The north gallery was removed from the large meeting room in the early C20, and the west gallery was removed in 1969 when the screen dividing the room from the vestibule corridor was moved. This is now partly glazed but incorporates C18 woodwork, including raised and fielded panels, pilasters, and a timber cornice. The north wall is panelled to dado height with raised and fielded panels, and the east wall is similarly panelled with plain panels. The high ceiling has 4 cased beams and 2 decorative C19 vents. (Dove, R & Segebarth, H: A History of the Friends' Meeting House Lancaster: Lancaster: 1990-).

Listing NGR: SD4729861681