Old Palace Croydon: western range

This western range forms part of the archiepiscopal palace at Croydon and was constructed between approximately 1493 and 1498 under Archbishop Morton. It was built to connect the principal apartments and chapel, housing high-status private apartments and lodgings on the upper floors with service rooms below. The range underwent significant alterations after 1630, principally to reconfigure the upper floor rooms and provide access to Archbishop Laud's newly raised pew in the adjacent chapel.

Construction and Materials

The entire range is built of uniform red-brown brick laid in English bond, enriched with darker vitrified brick creating diaper patterns. The principal rooms occupy the first floor and above, distinguished by larger window openings dressed in Reigate stone. The more utilitarian ground floor rooms have smaller windows with brick dressings. This material hierarchy reflects the building's original social organization.

Plan and Layout

The range runs south to north with a sequence of interconnected spaces. The west elevation is deliberately skewed to align with the east-west orientation of the principal buildings, creating a hierarchical processional route from the private apartments to the chapel. From north to south, the spaces comprise: anterooms to the chapel, a 17th-century stair connecting the first and second floors, the western chamber of the private apartments with a room above, and throughout, a contemporary undercroft at ground level. The northern rooms were internally altered with adjusted floor levels to accommodate access to the 17th-century raised pew in the adjacent western bay of the chapel. This western bay was added as part of the original 1490s construction but is separately listed under the chapel entry.

West Elevation

The west elevation presents a continuous stretch of 1490s brickwork in deep red-brown brick, predominantly laid in English bond and enriched with diaper work including cross motifs at the apex of the hall gable. South of the chapel, a lower pitched-roof range of two storeys above an undercroft features three irregular windows on each main floor. These windows sit in rectangular moulded surrounds with cusped spandrels, except where the window opening at the north end of the upper floor has been blocked. At the lower level, a wide blocked opening sits beneath an arch constructed in two courses of brick, though the brick blocking matches the rest of the wall.

The southern gabled section forms the west wall of the enlarged private chambers. At first-floor level, a window in a renewed stone surround sits beneath a shallow arched head. The upper level has an inserted two-light casement beneath a tile lintel, and a two-light original window in a moulded stone surround, positioned slightly to the north. Like the chapel, the gable features a shallow brick soldier course.

East Elevation

The east elevation overlooks the north court. At ground-floor level, this elevation and the adjoining gabled wing have single lights set in chamfered brick reveals. High up at second-floor level is a pair of single lights in stone surrounds with moulded spandrels. To the north, the three-storey gabled wing projects into the court. In its southern face at ground-floor level is an arched headed doorway in a stone surround, while the east elevation has a single light in a chamfered brick reveal.

At first-floor level is a two-light mullion window in a square-headed moulded stone surround, with moulded spandrels above four-centre arched lights. To its right, and in the floor above, are single lights in similar but eroded stone surrounds. To the left is an inserted or altered opening with a timber mullion and transom window featuring rectangular leaded panes beneath a tile lintel. The gable has a depressed arched opening with chamfered brick reveals, blocked in later red brick.

South and North Elevations

The south elevation, now enclosed within the 1987 stair block, is clad at ground-floor level. Above, the brickwork is exposed with two-light casements at first and second-floor levels. The adjacent projecting bay has a gabletted dormer with a three-light casement serving the upper chamber.

The north elevation of the southern bay, where the building meets the guard chamber, is built with red-brown brick in English bond and darker, later brick in Flemish bond, with a section in red brick to the west end. A distinct full-height break in the fabric between the central and eastern bays is marked by stone quoins where it meets the earlier guard chamber range. There is a small mullion and transom window beneath a flat brick arch, and above it a three-light casement set high under the eaves, both with similar leaded lights.

First Floor: Principal Private Chamber

The principal private chamber occupies the first floor of the southern bay. It is lined throughout in full-height panelling arranged in three tiers of fielded panels that extend to the window reveals, though this has since been painted over. The north wall breaks forward slightly at the chimney breast, where stone and flint cheeks of the opening remain visible. The fireplace is original, though heavily eroded.

The ceiling, of five bays, has a moulded cornice and deep, closely-spaced moulded ribs aligned between deep moulded transverse beams. The room appears to have been separated from the adjacent guard chamber by a closet, this difference in spatial arrangement reflected in the layout of the moulded ceiling. This closet could seemingly be bypassed on the south side to give access to the other principal apartment within the west range of the south court.

Second Floor: Upper Chamber

The upper room at the south end is an impressive chamber reached by a short flight of stairs from the 17th-century stairwell. At the eastern end, sections of side walls and window embrasures are lined in small-framed panelling. The arch-braced roof, of three bays, has a cambered tie beam at the eastern end abutting the roof of the guard chamber. Principal rafters with arched braces support slightly cranked collars, with struts from presumably embedded wall posts. The roof has two tiers of butt purlins.

The gallery at the eastern end overlooking the guard chamber has a later-inserted balustrade in 17th-century style, though this is a later 20th-century insertion. The southern projection in the room, much altered in the levels below, probably housed a stair bay which originally connected the two upper floors. In common with the first floor, a smaller inner room or closet with a moulded ceiling seems to have been associated with this principal room.

Central Stairwell

The stairwell in the narrow central bay of the range contains a later 17th-century dog-leg stair from first to second floors, with square newels, some with sunk panels, and most with ball finials. The upper balustrade has column balusters and a flat-moulded rail. The flight of stairs has inverted vase balusters, similar to the chapel altar rail, and a deeper roll-moulded rail. A similar half flight with renewed steps connects the stairwell to the southern room on the second floor.

The walls of the stairwell are fully lined in panelling with shallow moulded rails and muntins, likely contemporary with the other later 17th-century work, but with moulded cornices and ceilings consistent with the original 1490s construction. A later partition cuts across the arrangement of the stairwell, creating a lobby where the moulded ceiling extends into the north room on the first floor. This room is also fully lined in later 17th-century panelling, now painted, with small-framed panelling on the north wall and larger framing on the south partition wall.

The roof form of the north-south range between the two gables consists of rafter couples rising from substantial wall plates with no other members, and the moulded ceilings are set below wall plate level.

Northern Rooms

The north room of the upper floor is lined in vertical boarding, with a 17th-century partition wall and doorway relating to the construction of the raised pew. The floor level between this room and that below was altered to connect with Laud's pew. Both this room and the one beneath have single-light windows with simple, hollow chamfered architraves to the north, with two-light windows featuring moulded mullions and architraves to the south, both sets dating to the 1490s.

The small windows at the north end of the east wall suggest a connecting spiral stair between the two upper levels, which would have been removed as part of the alterations made to connect this range with Laud's raised pew. This room and the one below both have primary fireplaces in their south wall, corbelled out externally, but with flues rising through the north-west corner. This indicates the possibility of additional fireplaces and thus that the spaces may have previously been subdivided and that the two northern rooms might have formed a separate vertical apartment associated with the chapel.

Ground Floor Undercroft

The ground floor of the west range, at undercroft level, has exposed ceiling beams and joists in oak and pine, some reused, some chamfered. Those of oak have felling dates of 1486 to 1511. The exposed brick is a consistent warm red colour laid in English bond as with the exterior. This includes the rear arches and embrasures of blocked single-light window openings with depressed arched heads.

In the north-west corner is a segmental arched, angled hearth opening shared with the western bay beneath the chapel. This suggests some potential for fireplaces here and residential use from the 1490s at undercroft level, though the high arches may alternatively have been supporting hearths on the levels above.

Later Addition

At the south end, the 1987 stair block connecting to the teaching range is of steel and glass construction. This adjoins the historic western range but is not structurally integrated with it. Under the powers of exclusion in section 1(5A)(b) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, this part of the building has been specifically excluded from the listing.