Winchester Quaker Meeting House

Winchester Quaker Meeting House

A Quaker meeting house built around 1773, constructed of red brick laid mostly in Flemish bond with mathematical tiles on the upper storeys of the south elevation, beneath a U-plan hipped roof with clay tiles.

The building is square in plan with a small single-storey extension to the south-west. It is three storeys tall, with the principal elevation facing east overlooking a garden.

The east elevation presents a symmetrical frontage of five bays with grey plait bands between the storeys. The main entrance features a Doric doorway flanked by columns with a semi-circular fanlight above and an open pediment, with a timber panelled door. The ground floor has four six-over-six sash windows, two flanking the doorway on each side. The first floor contains five six-over-six sashes with a keystone to the central window. The top floor has four three-over-three sashes with two either side of a central casement window also keystoned. All windows have rubbed and gauged flat arches above which sits a brick dentil cornice below the eaves.

The south elevation has, on the eastern side, two six-over-six sashes on the lower two storeys with a casement on the top floor. The two other ground-floor windows are wide small-paned casements. The first floor contains a casement and a sash window, with three square sashes irregularly spaced on the attic floor.

The north elevation facing the street is five bays wide. The eastern two bays contain two blind openings on each floor. The far west bay has a service entrance door on the ground floor with two short casement windows in the other two west bays. The first floor is dominated by a tall arched staircase window in the centre with two sash windows of different sizes in the west two bays. The upper floor has one blind opening in the centre with two short sashes in the two far west bays.

The building abuts another structure on the west side.

The south-west extension is constructed of brick with a slate roof, a modern entrance door, and a small window. It contains a utility room and provides access from the garden to the kitchen, while the other part serves as storage.

Internally, walls are masonry or timber stud lined with lath and plaster. The ground plan is determined by a staircase set against the centre of the north wall, with a corridor on the upper floors running east-west. The original entrance hall has been combined with the north-east room to form the current meeting room, which features a dentil cornice and dado, window shutters, and a modern chimneypiece. Above the door from the former entrance hall to the stairwell is another semi-circular fanlight with a keystone (the doors are modern).

The main entrance leads to a small lobby with access to the library, which has a moulded chimneypiece with corbelled mantelshelf and cast-iron grate, and retains original shutters. West of the library is a dining room with a blocked fireplace. The kitchen has an oven set into the fireplace opening. Both the dining room and kitchen have ceiling beams. In the north-west corner is a small meeting room with the former service entrance to the street.

The open-string staircase is of oak with turned balusters and newels shaped as Doric columns. The upper two floors largely retain their original plan but have been divided into six bed-sitting rooms, a counselling room, and a warden's flat on the top floor. Two bedrooms on the first floor contain fireplaces with grates similar to that in the library; the second-floor rooms above them contain blocked fireplaces. The first-floor corridor has another arched opening with a keystone, echoing that on the ground floor. The first and second floors comprise timber floorboards over timber joists with ceilings lined in lath and plaster, except for the warden's flat.