Chapel Of St Michael Within

Chapel of St Michael Within, Chapel Court

A chapel built in 1723 by William Killigrew to serve St John's Hospital. It was altered in the late 19th century, underwent restoration and reopening in 1879, and received further alterations in the 20th century. The building is constructed of limestone ashlar with a lead roof.

The chapel is planned as a single space with a west gallery and east apse. It is entered from Chapel Court with a corresponding south door. An octagonal turret with cupola stands over the west end.

The external fabric and architectural detail appear largely to date from the 19th-century restoration. The south flank, facing Hetling Court, features four round lights above the doorway and three paired lights with tracery under flat segmental heads, all set in heavy raised plat surrounds with flat mullions and tracery members and bold plain sills on console brackets. The upper lights have a central oculus surrounded by six near-circular openings, while the lower lights feature a central mullion to rounded heads under an oculus. At the left-hand end are tall paired panelled doors on three stone steps, with a segmental head featuring a keystone and plat surround. Plain paired pilasters appear at each end with single pilasters dividing the bays, rising from a plinth without bases and carrying a dentil cornice inflected to the end pilasters, beneath a blocking course and parapet. The left-hand end incorporates a turret with horizontal board cladding and louvred ventilators on three facets, surmounted by a cornice and lead cupola. The east end has a projecting apse with small single lights on each side and a three-light window in a heavy surround at the centre. The lower part of the apse is fluted, with broad and deep splayed plinths on each side dying to a curve. The parapet is swept and raised above the centre. The north side is largely absorbed into the surrounding hospital complex but retains a similar doorway to the south elevation with a two-light window to its left, all set back under a 20th-century first-floor bridge structure.

The interior comprises a simple nave with a deep gallery and shallow apsidal chancel. The walls are plain plastered, the ceiling flat with a deep cove cornice, and three ventilating roses feature in the ceiling. The floor is carpeted. Behind the gallery is a projecting half-cylindrical turret with a central door, presumed to contain the staircase. The gallery front carries panelled decoration and features delicate carved and painted Royal Arms of George IV (as used 1816-1817), which were placed here in 1973 after removal from the redundant church of St Mark's, Lyncombe. An organ gallery was added in 1971.

The chapel contains plain bench pews, a Gothick-style reredos with octagonal panelled pilasters carrying carved figures and a mosaic panel, and a brass communion rail. The apse windows have coloured glass of 1879, and records indicate that windows were replaced in 1870. A tablet records the re-opening of the chapel on St Luke's Day, 1879. A monument on the north wall of 1683 to William Peak, Master of the Hospital, features a fine moulded surround and pediment with a bold angel's head.

This early 18th-century chapel was designed and built just before John Wood was commissioned to work on the adjacent Chandos Buildings and shows no evidence of the design revolution that Wood was about to introduce to the hospital. The windows contain Victorian tracery, though it is unclear whether or how far this copied the original Killigrew detail.

Historically, this was the first classical place of worship to be erected since antiquity. It was built to replace an earlier church that dated back to the 12th century.