Castle Arch

Castle Arch

House, now museum and headquarters of the Surrey Archaeological Society, located on Quarry Street in Guildford.

The building dates from approximately 1630, incorporating mid-13th century gate tower walls to its front. A rear wing was added in 1672, with further extensions completed in 1911 by architect Ralph Neville. The structure is timber framed, clad in red and brown brick with tile-hung gables on the Castle Hill elevation. The main gable end facing Quarry Street is constructed of chalk and flint rubble, while the 20th-century range to the left is faced in dark red and brown brick. The roofs are plain tiled at varying heights, dropping down on the Quarry Street side to a flat lead roof over the 20th-century extensions.

The building follows a hall and end cross wings plan, with the original house positioned at right angles to Quarry Street and facing Castle Hill, extended to the left along Quarry Street by Neville. It rises to two storeys and attics in a gabled block at the junction of Quarry Street and Castle Hill, two storeys to the right, and a single storey to the left along Quarry Street.

On the Castle Hill elevation, a very tall star-section stack sits to the right of centre with a corbelled top. Projecting gabled wings occupy both ends, with the left wing being larger. A plat band crosses the ground floor of the recessed central range, with a moulded plinth below. A three-light attic casement sits to the left in the gable, with a larger window on the first floor and a casement below on the ground floor. One three-light window appears on each floor of the right-hand gable end. The central range has mixed fenestration, including one small casement window on each floor to the right and two glazing-bar sash windows on each floor at the centre. An old studded door sits to the left of centre, accessed by two steps.

The Quarry Street elevation features a tall gable-end range to the right with a projecting square bay window beneath a hipped roof, rising through the ground and first floors. Above this sits a four-light attic window under a tile hood, set within a tile-hung gable. The bay window displays twelve-pane glazing-bar sashes, with two windows on each floor in the front face and one narrow four-pane sash on each return side. To the left, a pent-roofed range, partially rebuilt at ground level, features a projecting museum sign and large stacks at the rear junction of the wings. A single-storey range to the far left has shaped gables above and a projecting canopy across. Fixed display windows with some decoratively glazed casements flank the museum entrance.

The interior exhibits complicated floor levels with some exposed timber framing and bracing visible in the upper floors. An 18th-century turned baluster stair occupies the old range. Two fine fireplaces exist in the upper rooms of the gabled range at the street junction. The fireplace in the Margary Room is constructed of clunch with a cornice mantle and features a hollow-moulded, centre-arched fireplace surround with a projecting keystone block. Small shields decorate the spandrels, and pedestalled human figures flank the fireplace—one nude, the other dressed in classical attire.

The house was built for Francis Carter, or possibly his son, who also purchased and altered Guildford Castle keep in an attempt to convert it into a residence. The right-hand gabled wing on the Castle Hill elevation falls within the boundary of a Scheduled Ancient Monument (Surrey Monument No.1).