Querns House At Cirencester Hospital

Querns House at Cirencester Hospital

House, now part of Cirencester Hospital. Dated 1825 with later 19th-century additions in similar style; 19th and 20th-century internal alterations. Designed by P.F. Robinson for Charles Lawrence.

The building is constructed of coursed squared limestone with artificial stone slate roofs featuring coped verges and corbelled-out kneelers at the gables. Stone ridge and end stacks to the front range are now truncated, with five groups of octagonal ashlar flues in pairs and threes positioned on ridges, at ends and laterally to the rear elevation.

The house is designed in Tudor style with an irregular plan and fenestration. The entrance front displays two gables, two storeys and an attic, arranged across a seven-window range. The first floor contains five two- and three-light double-chamfered stone mullion windows, two to the centre and left with hoodmoulds. Similar single-light and two-light windows to the centre have diamond-pane cast-iron casements; one small 20th-century window is positioned to the centre. A similar single-light window with hoodmould and diamond-pane casement appears in the gable to the centre.

The ground floor has three single-light windows with double-chamfered stone transoms and hoodmoulds to the right and flanking porch, together with two three-light and one five-light double-chamfered stone-mullion windows to the centre and left with hoodmoulds, largely retaining diamond-pane casements. A gabled porch at the centre right features a boarded door with four-centred arched head divided into vertical panels by applied moulding with decorative strap hinges, set in a chamfered stone surround with hoodmould with carved stops. A datestone in the gable of the porch displays the date 1825 in relief. One raking dormer with a two-light diamond casement is present. A shallow chamfered plinth and weathered band course below the ground floor window to the gabled bay at the centre complete the entrance front.

A single-storey range is attached to the left with a gable facing outward and a truncated external stack on the facing gable end.

The garden front, formerly the principal elevation, comprises an 1825 range to the left with a later wing set back to the right. The 1825 range has one gable breaking forward to the centre with three gablets. It measures two storeys across a four-window range. The first floor displays a four-light canted oriel with moulded base and embattled parapet to the centre, together with two three-light double-chamfered stone mullion windows with hoodmoulds. A two-storey bay to the left has a three-light window to the front and single-light windows to the sides on the first floor. The ground floor features a five-light double-chamfered stone mullion-and-transom window with hoodmould to the centre, flanked by two single-storey canted bays with parapets containing three-light double-chamfered stone mullion and transom windows to the centre and single-light windows to the sides. The bay to the left has a similar window on the first floor. A chamfered plinth and weathered cill band to the ground floor of the gabled portion at the centre are present, with chamfered slit windows in the gablets. A shield and motto appear in a recessed panel with hoodmould in the gable to the centre; the gable coping has a trefoil stop and the base of a former finial at the apex.

The later wing to the right is in a similar but plainer style with scattered fenestration of chamfered and double-chamfered two- and three-light stone mullion windows, some with hoodmoulds.

The interior has been much altered for hospital use. The former entrance hall has a pair of doors from the porch, probably late 19th-century, half-glazed with leaded lights and perpendicular tracery. A room to the right of the hall has a 19th-century stone chimneypiece set to a splayed corner, formerly featuring a large Tudor-arched opening into the hall. A similar opening connects to the rear of the hall into a corridor. A room opposite to the rear has oak panelling and a chimneypiece with overmantel, probably early 20th-century. A hall to the left has early 19th-century moulded architraves to door openings with panelled reveals featuring four-centred arch heads to the panels. A room to the rear left has a late enriched moulded oak chimneypiece with a nine-pane half-glazed door leading outside.