Presbytery to the Roman Catholic Church of St Edmund King and Martyr (excluding the Blessed Sacrament Chapel at the rear)

This former mission house was built in 1761–1762 for Father John Gage SJ, becoming a presbytery to the Church of St Edmund King and Martyr in 1837. It was extended in the 19th century and late 20th century.

The former private, and illegal, chapel at the rear of the presbytery was incorporated into the church in 1979 and rededicated as the Blessed Sacrament Chapel. This chapel is included in the listing for the church (Grade II*). However, its gallery, which has been annexed as a parish office, forms part of the presbytery's listing.

Materials and Construction

The building is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond with penny-struck pointing, brick stacks and plain-tile roofs.

Plan

It is of two storeys with cellar and attic, laid out in a double-pile plan, aligned east to west, with two parallel gabled roofs.

Exterior

North Elevation (Principal Façade to Westgate Street)

The north-facing principal elevation to Westgate Street is of five bays with a chamfered and painted brick plinth and a wooden modillion cornice. It has a central, six-panel wooden door, the top two panels glazed, set within a wooden doorcase with panelled reveals, panelled pilasters and a frieze with a triple keystone surmounted by a triangular pediment. All the other bays across both floors contain one-over-one horned sashes in plain reveals with flat, skewback, gauged brick heads. The attic has three gabled dormers with weatherboarded gables and 20th-century two-light casements with horizontal glazing bars. At each end of the roof there are large gable-end stacks.

Recessed at the west end is a 19th-century two-storey single-bay addition with a cogged cornice and two-over-two horned sashes in flush-cased frames with flat, skewback, gauged-brick heads. The ground-floor window replaced a former doorway in the 20th century.

Rear Elevation

The rear elevation is of two bays with the Blessed Sacrament Chapel projecting to the right and a late-20th-century flat-roofed bay adjoining to the left (at the rear of the 19th-century single-bay addition to the front). The left-hand side bay of the original house has a six-over-two sash on the ground floor and a six-over-six sash on the first floor. The second bay to the right has a six-panel door with a flat hood on the ground floor, the top two panels glazed, and a large staircase window comprising a six-over-six sash above. All the windows are unhorned with plain reveals and flat, skewback, gauged brick heads. The attic has three segmental-headed dormers with 20th-century two-light casements with horizontal glazing bars.

The late-20th-century bay to the left, which projects slightly, has a six-panel door with a deep, three-light fanlight to the ground floor and a two-over-two horned sash above.

Interior

Ground Floor

The axial entrance hall has a plain plastered ceiling and walls, a decorative scroll cornice and six-panel doors giving off to the two front rooms and to the kitchen at the rear right, all of mid-18th-century date.

The right-hand front room retains many original features including a lugged architrave to the door, a moulded dado with large, bolection-moulded panelling above, an ornate scroll cornice and two windows with deep reveals with panelled shutters and window seats.

The left-hand front room also has two windows with deep reveals with mid-18th-century panelled shutters and window seats. The in-built cupboards with two-panel double doors flanking the fireplace are probably of 19th-century date, while the panelled wainscoting, moulded picture rail, square-headed fire surround and hearth stone are all late-20th-century in date.

The kitchen to the rear right has an original moulded cornice, panelled window shutters and an in-built display cabinet with a segmental-headed top section with pilastered sides and shaped shelving and panelled cupboard doors below.

From the left-hand side of the entrance hall, directly opposite the kitchen door, a transverse corridor with a segmental-headed panelled surround provides access to the church's confessional and sacristy, from where separate doors give off onto the Blessed Sacrament Chapel. The latter room also has an internal door to the church's vestibule. As these areas are in ecclesiastical rather than domestic use, they are described in the list entry for the Church of St Edmund King and Martyr.

Staircase and Landing

From the hallway's rear right, a dog-leg staircase rises against the kitchen wall to the first floor. It has bracketed open strings embellished with foliated scrollwork and vase-on-reel balusters supporting a ramped and wreathed handrail with a curved end supported by a cluster of balusters set upon a curved curtail step. The staircase and rear section of the landing have an ornate scroll cornice identical to that in the hallway, while the front section of the landing, which is separated from the rear by a plaster-moulded transverse beam, has a plain moulded cornice, probably a later replacement.

First Floor

The two right-hand side rooms on the first floor are subdivided by a transverse corridor which was inserted in the 19th century to provide access to the single-bay addition at the west end.

The right-hand front room retains an original six-panel door in a moulded architrave along with a moulded cornice to the north, east and west sides. The south wall along with its cornice and four-panel door all date from the remodelling undertaken in the 19th century when the corridor was inserted. On the north side there are two windows with moulded architraves and deep, plain, splayed reveals bearing the scars of now removed window seats, all of mid-18th-century date. The west side has a wooden fire surround and a four-panel door to its right-hand side, both of probable 19th-century date, the latter providing access to an ensuite in the single-bay addition.

The middle front room has an original, internal, four-panel door in a moulded architrave to the adjoining left-hand front room, suggesting that it was originally a dressing room. It also has a four-panel door in a moulded architrave from the landing along with a moulded cornice and a single window with a moulded architrave and deep, splayed reveals with a window seat, all of mid-18th-century date.

The left-hand front room has an original six-panel door in a moulded architrave, a moulded cornice and two windows with deep, splayed reveals bearing the scars of now removed window seats, all of mid-18th-century date. On the east side is an original, plain, square-headed fire surround, although the tiled infill surrounding the late-20th-century gas fire is a later addition, possibly in the early 20th century. Flanking the fireplace are two sets of original, built-in wardrobes with single-panel double doors.

The right-hand rear room has an original six-panel door in a moulded architrave, a moulded cornice and a single window with deep, splayed reveals bearing the scars of a now removed window seat. On the east wall is an original, plain, square-headed fire surround, although the tiled infill with an Art Nouveau-style secondary surround is a later addition, probably early 20th century. To the right-hand side of the fireplace there is an in-built wardrobe with two panel double doors, probably mid-18th century, and to its left-hand side a late-20th-century plain wooden door giving off to an ensuite in the late-20th-century addition at the west end.

The rear left room, which has a lower floor level, originally the gallery to the private chapel, was annexed in the 20th century and is now (2022) used as a parish office. It has an original four-panel door along with a Lombard frieze below a deeply coved ceiling on the north, east and west sides. The south wall is a late-20th-century glazed screen which separates the room from the lofty Blessed Sacrament Chapel.

Attic

The attic is accessed by a late-20th-century dog-leg staircase which gives off onto a north-south aligned axial corridor with two rooms on each side. Each room has a plank and batten door with a small bead moulding down one edge of each plank, three being original and one a late-20th-century replacement. The rear left room has a late-20th-century lowered floor and a collar rafter roof with exposed framing including wall plates with mortices indicating the position of the original floor level, tie beams, collars and studs, all mainly of mid-18th-century date but with a small number of machine-sawn replacement rafters. All the other rooms have plain plaster walls and ceilings.

Cellar

Beneath the house is a brick-lined cellar with a high timber ceiling.