1-12 And 12A, Vicars' Close (Flats) And Vicars' Hall

Four ranges of houses and a common hall for the Vicars' Choral, now converted into flats, comprising the upper court of the Vicars' Close. The buildings are mostly 15th century, with parts probably earlier. The common hall was rebuilt in 1756 and the west range (No.5) was rebuilt in 1764. Numbers 8 and 9 were restored in 1990.

The structures are timber-framed with brick stacks and brick rebuilding, with tile roofs throughout. The north range (Nos 6–9) is two storeys, timber-framed with a jettied first floor; the ground floor of No.7 is brick. Entrances are plain: No.6 has a half-glazed door, Nos 7 and 8 have plank doors, and No.9 has a two-panel door in an architrave. Fenestration is varied, mostly small-paned casements. No.6 has a small window at the angle; No.7 features a 1990 reconstructed oriel window with leaded glazing and two tiny flat-roofed dormers; No.8 has a shuttered ground floor window with a three-light leaded casement to a former oriel above (soon to be replaced by reconstruction in 1990), and a two-light window with a moulded mullion; No.9 has a shuttered ground floor window with the first floor being restored and no windows. The rear shows much brick rebuilding at the left end, with four large projecting stacks with offsets and varied fenestration mostly of small windows. The left end facing Beacon Street has a lean-to outshut and brick stack.

Interiors include chamfered beams and flat joists with segmental-headed brick fireplaces. No.9 has a winding stair and wall cupboard, recorded as having arch-braced collar trusses. No.6 has an attic floor of re-used 15th century joists.

The east range (Nos 10, 11, and 12) is two storeys, mostly with brick underbuilding to close-studded first floors; No.12 was extensively remodelled in the 17th century with stuccoed brick and is slightly taller. No.10 has an entrance to the north range with a leaded overlight to a wide-boarded door; No.11 has a four-flush-panel door; No.12 has an entrance to a passage with a wide-boarded door. Windows are three-light casements to the left end and leaded cross-casements to the right end, which has a two-light casement in a gabled dormer. A cross-axial stack and end stack serve No.12. The rear has timber-framing with a brick lean-to to the left end and a gabled range over the entrance passage; the north gable end has a raking buttress and projecting brick stack. No.10 is recorded as having an 18th-century splat baluster staircase.

The south range (Nos 1–4) is varied, mostly two storeys. No.1 has a probably 16th century close-studded timber-framed gabled addition with an entrance featuring moulded pilasters and frieze, an overlight to a wide-boarded door, and two-light leaded casements. No.2 has a brick front with wall plate, an entrance with a half-glazed door, two-light casements, and a pegged cross-casement. No.3 projects with a brick front in a right-angle plan, with an entrance featuring an overlight to a four-panel door and segmental-headed two-light casements; the left return has a gable and similar windows. No.4 was largely rebuilt around 1756 and adjoins the common hall, with a cogged brick frieze, a segmental-headed passage to the lower court, varied segmental-headed windows, and end stacks. The rear shows the adjacent rear of the hall with an entrance and a tall leaded stair window, with four-light casements to No.4. No.3, probably 14th century with 15th-century alterations, has a timber-framed first floor with remains of engaged shafts to storey posts and a large lateral stack to the right; the range to the right is brick, part with a lean-to outshut and part with cross-casements, with a timber-framed end gable.

Interiors include: No.1 recorded as having an inserted early coffered ceiling; No.3 recorded as having a four-bay timber frame; No.4 and the hall having some remaining interior features, though much may be hidden.

The Vicars' Hall has an elevation to Beacon Street: a brick two-storey gabled range with a coped gable, a plaster eaves band, and a blind keyed roundel. A terrace with an early 20th-century brick lozenge parapet faces the street. The entrance has a canopy and half-glazed door. Segmental-headed windows include a 16-pane sash to the ground floor flanked by narrow windows with 8-pane sashes, 8-pane and 16-pane sashes to the first floor flanking a blocked window (formerly an oriel), and 12-pane and 9-pane sashes to the left return. A stack sits to the left of the ridge.

The west range (No.5), now two flats, is brick with stucco dressings and end stacks. It is two storeys with a symmetrical three-window range and a top cornice. The entrance has a Tuscan porch and glazed door. Windows feature rubbed brick flat arches, with four-pane horned sashes to the ground floor and narrow eight-pane sashes flanking the entrance; the first floor has a four-pane/eight-pane sash, a six-pane/nine-pane sash with thick glazing bars, and a nine-pane sash. The rear facing Beacon Street has a stone plinth, sill bands, and a projecting ground floor window with a cornice and tripartite sashed window in an eared architrave flanked by sashes in Venetian form. Small first floor windows have rubbed brick flat arches over six-pane sashes. The interior has been altered.

The Vicars' Close is an important surviving example, perhaps the finest after the Vicars' Close at Wells, forming an attractive group to the north-west of the Cathedral.