St Bartholomews Chapel

CHATHAM

TQ7567NW HIGH STREET 762-1/3/15 (South side) 29/10/52 St Bartholomew's Chapel

GV II*

Chapel, hospital Chapel, now chapel of ease. Founded 1078 by Gundulph as part of St Bartholomew's Hospital, completed c1120, altered C13, nave partly rebuilt 1725, restored and N aisle added 1896 by Sir George Gilbert Scott. MATERIALS: flint and rubble with limestone dressings and a tiled roof. PLAN/STYLE: Norman apse, Early English N chancel, chapel and nave, Early English Gothic Revival style N aisle and SE vestry. EXTERIOR: apse has a half conical roof with 3 round-arched C11 windows with incised zig-zag decoration, and taller chancel gable. N chapel gable has tufa quoins, 2 lancets and a quatrefoil, with exposed truss, and 2-window N side. C19 N aisle has 3 pairs of round-arched windows and sill band with low buttresses between the right and middle pairs and to the right. W end has gabled nave and lower N aisle with exposed trusses, each with 2 lancets, the aisle with a quatrefoil above, and a buttress between. Mid C19 coped, gabled porch with a 2-centre chamfered arch to a similar W door with strap hinges. S elevation to nave has 2 small flat-headed windows, and a lower gabled SE vestry with a W arched door and paired E lancets. To the W end of the nave ridge is a steep square pyramidal spirelet with swept eaves. INTERIOR: chancel has a C13 round-arched sedilia with attached black marble columns, and a round chancel arch; vestry has a carved C12 piscina set on the top of a column with moulded base and capital, attributed to Hugh de Trottescliffe; restored round arches to N chapel and chancel arch: 3-bay nave with round columns with waterleaf capitals and checked arches. C19 roof has ashlar posts and collars. HISTORY: the only surviving part of the former St Bartholomew's Hospital, built outside the East Gate by Bishop Gundulph, and associated with his works at Rochester Cathedral. Used as a dwelling after the Reformation, the chapel was bought back and restored in 1725. The cloister lay to the S. Group value with the surrounding walls (qv). (The Buildings of England: Newman J: West Kent and the Weald:

London: 1976-: 202; Greenwood EJ: The Hospital of St Bartholomew Rochester: Rochester: 1962-).

Listing NGR: TQ7524967892