Wallingford Quaker Meeting House

The Wallingford Quaker Meeting House is a Quaker meeting house built in 1724, restored around 1924, and has undergone later alterations.

It features red and grey bricks laid in Flemish bond, with a flint base and clay tile roof coverings. The building is a single-storey rectangular structure with a hipped roof. Located in the garden behind 13 Castle Street, which serves as the caretaker’s cottage, the meeting house is oriented north-south and is situated immediately east of the scheduled Saxon Town.

The exterior showcases a low brick and flint plinth, a brick plat band, and a dentilled cornice. The main (east) front has a double-leaf six-panelled door with an architrave surround on the left and a six-over-six sash window on the right. The south elevation features a central six-over-six sash window. The rear (west) elevation includes, from left to right, another six-over-six sash window and a four-panelled door with an architrave surround, which is not aligned with the east door. The sash windows are unhorned and have thick glazing bars, while the north elevation is partially obscured by an adjacent building.

Inside, the meeting house consists solely of the meeting room, with no additional spaces. The east entrance leads into the back of the room. The south wall has a dado of vertical boarding, interrupted by the window opening, and a timber rail with hat and coat pegs. The other walls feature a dado of plain horizontal boarding with fixed benches that have curved armrests, except for the southern part of the west wall, which contains a bookcase. The Elders’ stand on the north wall is a central ‘pulpit’ type, accessed by two steps on either side, with a backboard that rises above the dado and curved sides to the upper fixed bench. The front of the stand includes a fixed bench with armrests and a handrail supported by short turned posts. The floor is made of brick paviours, and the plain ceiling has a centrally-placed roof hatch.