Hospital Of St John Without The Barrs And Chapel

Hospital of St John without the Barrs and Chapel

Almshouses and chapel in Lichfield on St John Street (south-west side).

The hospital was founded in 1135 by Bishop Roger de Clinton as a place of refuge for pilgrims after the city gates were closed, run by a community of Augustinian brothers and sisters. It was refounded in 1495 by Bishop William Smith, when the almshouse range was built and it became an almshouse and school; the school later became the Grammar School in the 16th century. The building was altered and extended in 1929, with a large addition of 1966-7 by Louis de Soissons. The chapel was extended in 1829 and restored in 1870.

The building is constructed of brick with ashlar dressings and tile roof, with the chapel in ashlar. The plan comprises a long range with later ranges forming a U-shape, with the chapel to the north. The main range is two storeys with nine windows.

The exterior facade is articulated by eight large projecting stacks with offsets, now disused, with an offset buttress to the right end. The entrance between the 6th and 7th stacks has a Tudor head in architrave with label mould and battened door with strap hinges; an oval plaque above, erected in 1720, records the refounding of 1495, with a cartouche above bearing the arms of Bishop Smith. Most windows are small with brick sills, chamfered jambs, ashlar lintels and leaded glazing. A larger window to the left of the cartouche has larger windows to its right of the entrance; the ground-floor window has a brick label, while the first-floor window is a 2-light casement with small-paned glazing. The right end has two small windows to the ground floor and a later gabled oriel above with a 1:3:1-light single-chamfered-mullioned window. The right return next to the chapel has a blocked elliptical-headed window and leaded light. The left end has 1929 additions forming a canted angle and wing to the rear, with 1966 additions of a single-storey return wing and 2-storey rear wing. The rear elevation has a 4-centred entrance to the cross-passage with brick arch and niche above containing a 19th-century statue, with 2-light, 3-light and single-light windows to the left, and to the right six 2-storey canted bays of 1929 with 1:2:1-light windows.

The interior contains some flat joists with runout stops, and a front corridor was inserted in 1929.

The chapel has a single-vessel nave and sanctuary with a north aisle added in 1829. The east end has a coped gable with kneelers and offset angle buttresses to the right; a segmental-pointed window of five double-cusped lights, a small window of pointed arch above, and an enriched 19th-century rainwater head to the left; the blind return has a cornice. The north aisle has a coped west gable with kneelers and gabled bell cote with angle buttresses; the 3-light west window has intersecting tracery, and the north return has similar windows flanking a buttress and stack. The south elevation has offset buttresses, a double-chamfered pointed entrance to the left end, a 2-light plate tracery window, a lancet, a 3-light window and a 2-light square-headed window both with Perpendicular tracery, and a traceried lancet to the right end.

The chapel interior has a roof with cusped arch braces to collars and queen struts. The sanctuary has a blocked 3-light square-headed window to the north. A 3-bay arcade to the north aisle has octagonal piers and head stops to hoods. The north aisle has a king post roof. The west end has a vestibule with re-used panelling.

The sanctuary contains bolection-moulded fielded panelling with fluted frieze and cornice; a large central panel with frieze depicting grapes and wheat; a piscina to the south with arch over a restored bowl; a gabled tabernacle to the north; and encaustic tiles. The aisle has an organ to the west end and a small octagonal font. Monuments to members of the Simpson family are located at the west end, with 19th-century stained glass to the south and a 1984 east window by John Piper.