Sudbury Quaker Meeting House

Sudbury Quaker Meeting House

This Grade II-listed Quaker Meeting House was built in 1804 and extended in 1818, with later alterations including a 2012 extension designed by Tricker Blackie Associates.

The single-storey building is rectangular on plan and comprises three main units arranged west to east: the former women's business meeting room, the main meeting room, and an entrance hall with storage and cloakroom facilities positioned to the south side.

The main meeting room is constructed in red brick laid to Flemish bond with a half-hipped roof covered in plain tiles. The former women's business meeting room is built in white brick, also laid to Flemish bond, with a lower-level hipped roof covered in slate. The 2012 extension includes a glazed timber portico and entrance hall.

The meeting house is situated within the Quaker burial ground on Friars Street, oriented north-west to south-east. It stands in close proximity to The Red House (Grade II*) and numerous Grade II-listed buildings flanking Friars Street, including the Walls of Burial Ground of Friends Meeting House.

The main elevation faces west and features the glazed timber portico providing the principal entrance. The main meeting room's west elevation includes an upper-level window lighting the gallery. A ground-floor door in the east end of the south wall, beneath a flat arch, serves as a fire exit. The east elevation contains a sash window with side lights under a segmental arch. The north elevation of the main meeting room comprises three bays, each with a sash window. The former women's meeting room's north elevation includes two windows serving the kitchen and school room respectively.

Internally, the glazed double-leaf door of the portico opens into the entrance hall, with storage and cloakrooms to the south. The former women's business meeting room, now divided into a school room and kitchen, is accessed from the hall through a newly-inserted central door in the south wall. Two eight-over-eight-light timber sash windows flank this door, positioned in what was formerly the external wall.

The main meeting room is reached via the east end of the entrance hall, which opens into the ground-floor space beneath the gallery. This space is lit by a window in the north wall and is enclosed by a plain panelled partition rising to the gallery front. The gallery stair, located in the north-west corner, features a closed string with a columnar newel post and stick balusters. A part-glazed double-leaf door at the centre of the partition provides access into the meeting room proper.

The meeting room contains fixed benches along the north, west, and south walls. A panelled dado, ramped upwards, extends to the Elders' stand which spans the full width of the east wall. The Elders' stand comprises two tiers of fixed benches with short staircases at each end. The rear bench is equipped with a handrail carried by the panelled front, whilst the front bench features handrails arranged to form a central opening, supported on posts rising from the dais.