Berkeley'S Hospital: Chapel

The Chapel of Berkeley's Hospital, dated 1703, is located on the west side of The Foregate in Worcester. It was endowed by Robert Berkeley and features reddish-orange brick in Flemish bond, with a renewed ashlar plinth, quoins, and architraves. The roof is plain tile, splayed, and hipped. The chapel is a single tall storey with four windows. It has a moulded plinth and full-height quoins. The central entrance consists of a double door with ten raised-and-fielded panels, L-hinges, and a bolection moulded architrave. Above the entrance is a dated keystone flanked by pilasters with acanthus corbel brackets, a cornice, a pulvinated frieze, and a broken segmental pediment featuring a coat of arms. A statue of Robert Berkeley is positioned in a round-arched niche above the entrance. The round-arched windows have tooled architraves and keystones, with moulded sills and a band above them. The chapel is topped with a modillion cornice, a curvilinear modillion 'pediment', and a crowning cupola. The rear features three straight-headed windows in tooled architraves, with one similar window at the west end and a round-arched window at the east end, all with coloured glass.

Inside, the chapel is plain, with a quarry tile floor. Historically, the almshouses and chapel were endowed by Robert Berkeley of Spetchley in 1692 for twelve poor men. The chapel is situated on the west side of a courtyard, surrounded by the almshouses, gate lodges, piers, and gates, representing an important example of Renaissance planning and one of the finest almshouse groups in England.