Penny'S Almshouses Including Chapel And Screen Wall

LANCASTER

SD4761NE KING STREET 1685-1/7/152 (West side) 22/12/53 Penny's Almshouses, including chapel and screen wall (Formerly Listed as: KING STREET Penny's Hospital (Nos.1 to 12 consecutive)) (Formerly Listed as: KING STREET Chapel at Penny's Hospital) (Formerly Listed as: KING STREET Entrance gateway at Penny's Hospital)

GV II*

Almshouses. 1720, altered early C20 and restored 1974. Built by the executors of the will of William Penny. Sandstone rubble boundary wall and ashlar entrance archway with ashlar dressings, the dwellings mostly covered by roughcast render, with green slate roofs. 2 parallel rectangular ranges at right-angles to the street, each comprising 5 units with a 6th added at the west end of both, forming a narrow courtyard closed by a chapel at the west end and a screen wall with entrance arch at the east end. The entrance archway of 3 bays with rusticated quoins, shallow Tuscan pilasters framing the centre, pulvinated frieze, moulded cornice, and shaped gable with hollow-moulded coping and ball finials. The central gateway is segmental-headed and has a robust rusticated surround, and wrought-iron gates with scrolled cresting; the original square lettered tablet in the gable has been recently replaced with a modern one copying the Latin inscription. The houses are single-storeyed, each unit of one bay with a window to the left of the door. The doorways have quoined jambs and double lintels, and the large cross-windows have slightly recessed flat-faced mullions and transoms, and leaded glazing. The roofs have coped gables with ball finials on the apex, and low rebuilt chimneys on the ridge. The added units at the west end are in matching style but on a larger scale. The courtyard has flagstone paving with gutters running along the front of the dwellings crossed by flagstone bridges to the doors. The chapel at the west end presents a shaped gable facade of coursed squared sandstone, with a keyed round-headed doorway in the centre approached by 3 steps with simple curved side-railings, a square tablet over the door inscribed FORGET NOT/ THE CONGREGATION /OF THY POOR, and a square bellcote on the apex of the gable, with a ball finial. The 2-bay side walls have cross-windows, and the west end has a tripartite round-headed window (but these are not visible from the courtyard). INTERIOR: the chapel has an oak dado of raised and fielded panels, and a roof truss with tie-beam and sturdy turned queen-posts. The altar table bears the date '1928', the probable date of restoration. HISTORY: William Penny (1646 - 1716) occupied various positions on the Town Council and was three times Mayor of Lancaster. When King Street was widened in the early C20 the two almshouses nearest the road were demolished, the screen wall rebuilt in its present position, the chapel shortened, and two new almshouses built next to the chapel. The chapel and entrance gateway were listed on 18.2.70.

Listing NGR: SD4754261625