Cockyns Hospital Cogan House Cogans Hospital

Cogan House, originally known as Cockyns Hospital, is located at 53 and 53A St Peter's Street. This building dates back to the late 12th century and was named after William Cockyn, who died in 1203. The name changed to Cogans Hospital after John Cogan, who lived there from 1626 to 1657 and established a hospital for widows of ministers upon his death.

The front of the building appears to be from the 19th century, featuring three storeys of red brick and an old tiled roof with two hips. It has four cambered sash windows and two bays on the first floor. The ground floor includes a later 19th-century shop front with marble risers and a frieze decorated with triglyphs and paterae.

Behind this façade is an L-shaped medieval hall-type structure with walls made of flint, chalk, and stone that are 2 feet 3 inches thick. This is one of the few stone houses in Canterbury to have survived. The interior has undergone significant alterations but retains a pointed stone doorway in the hall and an original king-post in the attic. An addition was made to the south side around 1473 by John Bygg, a mercer and mayor of Canterbury, which features a heavily panelled and moulded oak ceiling on the tile ground floor and carved doorways on the first floor.

The hall contains parchemin panelling, likely installed by John Bygg's widow, Constance, who died in 1513, along with a carved frieze added by John Thomas, a hosier, in the early 16th century. In the late 16th century, Ralph Baldwin added a panelled parlour with a plaster ceiling where the courtyard faced the street, as well as a similar room above it. He likely also inserted the staircase, though the upper part was altered in 1870. The house functioned as a hospital for widows of ministers from 1668 until 1870, when it was completely refronted.

Cogan House is part of a group with Nos 49 to 60, the Methodist Church, and the forecourt to the Methodist Church.