The Master'S House Of St Katherines Hospital (Malvern Hills District Council Office)

The Master's House of St Katherines Hospital

This is the Master's House of St Katherines Hospital, situated behind the Hospital itself. Built in the early 15th century with later alterations and additions, it now serves as the Malvern Hills District Council Office.

The building presents different characters on different sides. The south façade is of red brick, some painted, with a plain tile roof that is partly gabled and partly hipped with a tall corniced ridge and lateral stacks. The north side is principally timber-framed, mostly with later painted brick nogging interspersed with some later brick sections. The structure forms an irregular and asymmetrical complex of wings oriented north-south and east-west, with the eastern side fronting onto the High Street.

The earliest part, the 15th-century Master's House, is now encased on almost all sides with later additions and extensions accumulated over centuries of occupation. The original House comprises a central single-storey hall, originally open to the roof but with a later floor inserted. Two-storey cross-wings at either end originally served as the upper and lower ends, with the solar to the west and the buttery and pantry to the east. Four oriels were incorporated within each re-entrant angle between the hall and crosswings, two of which survive substantially intact. These may have provided stair access to the upper floors or possibly contained garderobes.

The present entrance is on the east side through a post-medieval part of the building. The slightly projecting bay to the southeast corner represents the eastern cross-wing of the early hall complex. The south façade is an asymmetrical range of mostly 12-pane sash windows with segmental-arched heads, some with rubbed brick voussoirs and keystones. This largely 18th-century facing replaced the original timber-framed hall, though evidence of former bays can be seen in offsets and rooflines. At the southwest corner is a full-height external stack relating to the 19th-century wing. The western elevation, the main frontage of the 19th-century wing, has a range of 2-pane sashes with a lateral stack and later porch. The northern elevation comprises the projecting gable end of the 19th-century wing with two 16-pane sashes and a setback to the timber-framed wall of the original hall.

Bordering the central range to the east is a deep wing with a brick section joining the main timber-framed hall range to an originally separate timber-framed building believed to be a detached kitchen. This is mainly box-framed with painted brick infill panels and a very large lateral brick stack.

The interior has been reordered first for domestic accommodation and then latterly for offices. A large open-well staircase with a wreathed handrail, probably dating to the 18th-century alterations, is located in the large hall behind the north entrance door. Much of the earlier timber-framing survives beneath later decoration and partitioning, visible both under later wallpaper and projecting from walls and ceilings. On the ground floor of the western cross-wing is a former dining room lined with dark timber wainscoting topped by an enriched timber frieze. It incorporates an overmantle with Ionic pilasters and moulded blind arcading, dated to 1588, though this has clearly been reset in its present position.

The greatest significance of the building lies in the roof structure, which allows interpretation of the earliest development. The hall was formerly open to the roof, which survives virtually intact. It comprises four bays, the middle ones lying over the body of the hall and separated by an arch-braced truss. The outer trusses have queen struts and a collar. The trusses incorporate tie beams, that at the west richly moulded on the upper 'dais' side. At the eastern low end of the hall a spere truss marks the separation of the hall from the bay of the screen's passage. There are two tiers of purlins and a ridge-piece with wind braces to the lower part.

The west end cross-wing is a three-bay timber-framed structure of two storeys and part attic. The eastern cross-wing is structurally similar, although slightly shorter, with an arch-braced truss in the southern bays of the roof and simpler roof trusses to the north, suggesting that there was a high-status first-floor room to the south open to the roof with a room of lesser status to the north. The ground floor almost certainly accommodated the buttery and pantry beyond the screens passage.

To the north, now part of the complex but originally separate, is a detached wing thought to be a kitchen.

The Master's House is a rare and almost unique example of a building type once commonly associated with hospital and infirmary sites. It is particularly notable for its early 15th-century date and the degree of survival despite later alterations and extensions.