St John's Court

St John's Court, a terrace of three C17 almshouses, incorporating fabric from the medieval Hospital of St John.

MATERIALS: constructed from limestone rubble with stone dressings, and a stone slate roof.

PLAN: situated on the eastern side of St John’s Street, the building is orientated roughly north to south. It is rectangular on plan, consisting of three units, numbers 1 to 3: south to north. The building is a single storey with an attic, and each unit is two-rooms deep.

EXTERIOR: the west elevation of the building faces onto St John’s Street. It is three bays, each of which has a full-width dormer gable with a three-light mullioned, leaded casement window to each storey, with a timber lintel and slate sills. The south elevation is the gable end of short terrace; it has a re-set late Norman arch with splayed sides and two orders springing from shaped corbels. The outer order has a roll moulding, and the inner has hexagons with lozenges. The archway is blocked, and contains a replacement three-light window, and a raised drip mould and lancet above. In the gable above is a reset late-C12 stilted arch on columns, containing a square panel with pilasters and a cornice, inscribed to record the 1694 endowment by Michael Weekes.

In the adjacent building, 3 St John’s Bridge (Grade II, List entry 1269275), is a rebuilt archway to a passageway providing access to the rear courtyard of the building. Within the passage is a doorway to the southernmost house, number 1.

On the east elevation, the ground floor of the southernmost bay is obscured by the adjacent building, and a dormer to the attic abuts its gable. Numbers 2 and 3 face onto the rear courtyard. On the ground floor each has a replacement door and a two-light leaded casement window. There is a continuous timber lintel at impost level, and a full-width dormer gable to the northernmost unit, number 3, and a hipped dormer within the roof of number 2.

INTERIOR: not inspected, but understood to retain chamfered beams and open fireplaces with oak lintels.