Penny's Almshouses Including Chapel and Screen Wall

Penny's Almshouses, including a chapel and screen wall, were built in 1720 and altered in the early 20th century and restored in 1974. The almshouses were constructed by the executors of the will of William Penny. The complex consists of sandstone rubble boundary walls and an entrance archway with ashlar dressings, the dwellings largely covered in roughcast render, under green slate roofs. The layout comprises two parallel rectangular ranges at right angles to the street, with each range originally containing five units, and a sixth unit added to the west end of both, forming a courtyard. A chapel closes the west end, and a screen wall with an entrance arch is located at the east end.

The entrance archway has three bays with rusticated quoins, shallow Tuscan pilasters framing the centre, a pulvinated frieze, a moulded cornice, and a shaped gable with hollow-moulded coping and ball finials. The central gateway features a robust rusticated surround and wrought-iron gates with scrolled cresting. A recently replaced modern tablet copies the original Latin inscription in the gable. The single-storey houses each have one bay with a window to the left of the door. Doorways have quoined jambs and double lintels, and the large cross-windows have slightly recessed flat-faced mullions and transoms with leaded glazing. The roofs have coped gables with ball finials on the apex, and low rebuilt chimneys on the ridge. The added units to the west end match the style but are larger in scale. The courtyard is paved with flagstones, with flagstone bridges providing access to the doorways.

The chapel’s shaped gable facade is constructed from coursed squared sandstone, with a keyed round-headed doorway in the centre, approached by three steps with curved side-railings. Above the door is a tablet inscribed “FORGET NOT / THE CONGREGATION / OF THY POOR,” and a bellcote sits on the gable apex, topped with a ball finial. The side walls have cross-windows, and the west end has a tripartite round-headed window (though this is not visible from the courtyard).

Inside the chapel, there is an oak dado of raised and fielded panels and a roof truss with a tie-beam and sturdy turned queen-posts. The altar table bears the date ‘1928’, likely the date of restoration. William Penny (1646–1716) held various positions on the Town Council and was three times Mayor of Lancaster. Following the widening of King Street in the early 20th century, the two almshouses closest to the road were demolished, the screen wall was rebuilt in its present position, the chapel was shortened, and two new almshouses were added next to the chapel.