Warwick Quaker Meeting House

Warwick Quaker Meeting House

This meeting house was built in 1695, extended during the 18th century, and further extended in 1992 by Donald James & Partners. The building is constructed of red brick, stone, and clay tile roofs, and forms an L-shaped plan across three distinct phases.

The 1695 meeting room forms the core of the building, rectangular in plan running north-west to south-east. It is two storeys tall, built of red brick laid in Flemish bond with stone quoins and a stone plinth, with a pitched clay tile roof. The principal elevation faces south-west and adjoins the rear of the 18th-century cottage. The three-bay cottage elevation features three 12-pane sash windows with segmental relieving-arches at ground level, a small two-light leaded window and two gabled dormers with small sashes at first floor, and a blocked doorway to the far left. The entrance to the adjacent meeting room is via a pair of six-panel timber doors with H-L hinges, topped by a flat timber canopy on brackets. To the right are two tall mullion and transom timber casements with leaded lights serving the meeting room, with smaller rectangular leaded lights lighting the gallery above. The south-east gable features a central glazed door (the original entrance) with a mullion and transom window with two brick relieving-arches above. The north-east elevation is blind. A semi-circular stone well is attached to the south-west elevation.

The 18th-century cottage is rectangular in plan, two rooms deep, with its front at a slightly-offset angle. It is two storeys with an attic, accessed from the north-west elevation facing Hill Street via four stone steps with wrought-iron handrails. The entrance door is panelled and glazed with a plain canopy on brackets. The elevation displays a 16-pane sash window at ground floor with two 12-pane sashes above and a dormer.

The 1992 extension comprises two irregularly-shaped compartments built of modern red brick with brick corbelled eaves brackets. The north-west (Hill Street) elevation has three 20th-century 12-pane sash windows at ground and first floor, with a lower section to the left featuring a dormer window. To the right is a red-brick archway with stone dressings inscribed in painted letters reading "FRIENDS MEETING HOUSE", leading to a passage that provides access to the 1992 extension and features two 20th-century sash windows above. At the rear, the extension displays twin gables and 20th-century 12-pane sash windows.

Interior

The meeting room entrance leads into an internal porch with 20th-century woodwork and glazed double doors, then to the rear of the meeting room below the 18th-century gallery. The gallery has a substantial boxed-bressumer with framed and panelled front and boarded floor. The gallery stairs in the north corner date to the 20th century. Walls are lined with framed panelling, plastered and painted above. On the south-west wall is an 18th-century fireplace with a timber bolection moulded surround (there is no external stack). The main body of the meeting room is three-bay, with two roof trusses partially-obscured by the ceiling, connected by 18th-century braces with ogee stops. The floor is parquet. On the north-west wall is a segmental arch doorway with 20th-century doors, leading into the 18th-century cottage. The rear room has clasped, crossed and chamfered ceiling beams with ogee stops. The cottage now houses a common room and library, with most doors and fixtures dating to 1972. All fixtures within the 1992 extension, now a community café with offices above, are of that date.