Bishop'S Court With Bishop'S Court Flat And Rear Flat Attached

Bishop's Court with Bishop's Court Flat and Rear Flat Attached

A house, now serving as the Bishop's Palace. The building is of mixed construction and dates, comprising work from the 15th century, around 1600, 1678, the early and later 18th century, 1845 (dated), the 1920s, and 1961. The house was left to the bishops of Rochester in the late 17th century, sold by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in the 19th century, and subsequently re-purchased by them to form the present bishop's residence.

The structure is built of knapped flint with brick dressings to the early build, red brick to later additions, and Kent tile roofs. It comprises 2 storeys with attics in an irregular Z-plan, mostly of double-depth pile, with a 1920s single-storey addition with attics running along St Margaret's Street.

The garden front (to the rear) reveals a substantial 2 and 3 chamber 2-storey house of around 1600 with 2 rectangular 2-storey bays and a massive external stack. Around 1920, the ground floor was rendered with 2 canted brick 2-storey bays fitted with oak mullioned and transomed leaded casement windows in 17th-century style. The south gable has a stack with 2 set-offs and bracketed coping with 3 diamond-set flues. The set-offs continue as a flinted string course across the gable and garden front. At the north end of the garden front is a 2-bay 18th-century brick extension possibly concealing earlier work. The ground floor features 2 two-leaf 16-pane French doors and 2 first-floor 12-pane sashes with glazing bars under cambered soldier arches. The attics have 2 circa 1920 gables over the bays, one central circa 1920 5-light casement, and to the left 2-light casement dormers. The gable at the north has circa 1600 work at ground floor, 18th-century brick skin, and circa 1920 brick and flint alterations above. The substantial north return has a datestone marked RW1845, with 5 ground-floor circa 1920 casements, 4 first-floor sash windows with glazing bars, and 4 second-floor sash windows with glazing bars. There are 4 prominent stacks.

The entrance front features a 1961 neo-Georgian single-storey entrance wing at the centre, a 2-storey 2-bay wing of 18th-century date to the left with a hipped roof, and to the right an early 18th-century wing with a complex roof pattern of 4 different pitches. Within this right wing is a staircase said to be of 1678. This wing is brought forward to the line of the road with a 3-storey 3-bay facade and parapet roof. It has 2 ground-floor, 3 first-floor 12-pane and 2 second-floor 9-pane sashes, at the first floor under circa 1700 segmental arches and at the second floor under flat rubbed brick arches. A single-storey wing with attics is attached along the street to the north, dating to circa 1920, with 4 ground-floor and 5 dormer casements and a carriage arch. A 2-storey elevation faces the service court at the rear.

Interior features include a circa 1500 quadripartite vaulted undercroft, arranged as a chapel and fitted with imported 16th and 17th-century mannerist woodwork, panelling, and stalls. One ground-floor room at the south against the gable has late 17th-century raised and fielded wooden panelling with bolection mouldings to panels, 4 beams, and box cornices. An impressive staircase said to be of 1678 rises to the first floor only and is clearly additional to the putative original circa 1600 three-cell build. It features turned balusters, stout rails with dentil cornice, and treads with florettes to the undersides. Heraldic beasts of mid-19th-century origin ornament the newel heads. The staircase continues to the second floor with 19th-century work imitating the circa 1678 style. The first-floor panelled chamber against the south gable has stile and muntin panelling and an ovolo moulded stopped and chamfered spine girder beam. A 4-centre arched stone fireplace of circa 1500 is present, with a Renaissance or Mannerist carved wooden overmantle.