Friends' Meeting House

WORCESTER

SO8555SW SANSOME PLACE 620-1/13/497 (West side) 22/05/54 Friends' Meeting House (Formerly Listed as: SANSOME PLACE (West side) Former Friends Meeting House)

GV II

Meeting house for the Society of Friends. 1701 with later additions and alterations including interior re-ordering in 1980. Pinkish-orange brick in Flemish bond with stuccoed plinth and hipped plain tile roof. EXTERIOR: single tall storey, 4 windows. Plinth. Tall wide 12/8 sashes in near-flush frames and cambered-arched surrounds with cambered arches and sills. 3-course band over windows. Modillion eaves band. Central entrance in projecting pedimented porch, double 12-panel doors in plain architrave with flat arch of gauged brick; frieze and moulded cornice. Further entrance in right return under cambered arch, renewed 6-panel door. Rear has tall 8/8 sashes. INTERIOR: gallery to left part re-uses original panelling and original oric columns, some re-used panelled dado. HISTORICAL NOTE: the Society of Friends began meeting in Worcester in 1655 and land for this building was purchased in 1700, meetings were then transferred from Friar Street. In its form and side wall entry plan, a characteristic example of Old Dissent architecture. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Worcestershire: Harmondsworth: 1968-1985: 322; RCHME: Non-Conformist Chapels and Meeting Houses in Central England: London: 1986-: 259; County Record Office: Book of Abstracts; Folio 31, BA8769/1 (i)).