Choir House And The Old Library

Choir House and the Old Library

Two terraced buildings on the south-east corner of College Green in Worcester, formerly service ranges now part of King's School. The left-hand building (east side of the Green) was built in 1910 to designs by A. Hill Parker and constructed by Stokes Brothers. The right-hand building, originally a coach house and stables, was rebuilt in 1845 with architect A.E. Perkins, then converted for school use by A. Hill Parker in 1908 and 1909.

Both buildings are constructed in red and cream sandstone with slate roofs. The left-hand roof is laid to diminishing courses with parapeted eaves and gables. The left building has a stone stack to its right gable end with string course, cornice and pots; an ornate lead hopper head sits to the far left. The right building features brick stacks with oversailing details and pots, and dormers with mock timber-framing to the far right.

Both buildings have an L-shaped, single-depth plan. The left house presents a symmetrical composition in Tudor style with two full-height window bays that break forward slightly, parapeted gables, and linking ranges to each end. It is two storeys with five first-floor windows. The stonework is ashlar with a mostly punched finish and drafted margins. Details include a plinth, a moulded string course over the heads of ground-floor windows and below the sills of first-floor windows, a central canopied niche rising from the upper string course with a statue and cartouche inscribed "HHW", crenellated parapet copings, finials to the gables, and a shield to the left bearing the school crest. Multi-pane metal-framed casement windows predominate; the four principal windows are tri-partite with mullion and transom, while those to the upper floor have cambered heads. A mullion and double transom window to the left has square leaded-light glazing. A wide arched opening below features a vertically boarded door with side-lights, and an arch-headed vertically boarded door sits to the far right.

The right house has an asymmetric gabled elevation in Tudor style, part single-storey and part two-storey, with five first-floor windows. The stonework is punched ashlar with chamfered sills and window surrounds, gable copings and finials, a blank shield to the left-hand parapet and to the tympanum of two adjacent windows to the right. Fenestration to the left facade includes lancet, mullion, and mullion and transom windows, all with square leaded glazing. The right facade has 6/6 and 4/4 sashes apart from two 6-pane paired side-hung casements. A 4-centred arch entrance to the extreme left has a vertically boarded door with overlight and sidelights; a further boarded door with arched head sits at the centre, and a part-glazed panelled door with arched head to the far right.

Interior of the right house features carved stone brackets to the timber ceiling and a carved stone fireplace. The left house contains stop-chamfered panelled doors in moulded wood architraves; an open-well stair with diamond-set balusters and tapered newels; and a principal reception room to the ground-floor right with timber ceiling, cottage-style timber surround, and an inglenook fireplace with carved brackets to the bressumer.

The left-hand building was constructed as the Woodward Memorial Extension to Choir House. Herbert Hall Woodward was precentor from 1890 to 1909. A.E. Perkins was also architect of extensions to Nos. 10 and 10A College Green and of Eld Hall, Upper Tything. A. Hill Parker was architect of several other extensions on College Green including Nos. 5 and 6, and was also architect of Perrins Hall, Upper Tything.

All listed buildings in College Green form a significant group providing the setting for Worcester Cathedral to the north. The rear boundary wall to Nos. 2 to 6 College Green is part of the Monastic Precinct Wall, a Scheduled Ancient Monument.