Church House

Church House is a remarkable complex of medieval buildings that served as the Abbot's Lodging in the former Benedictine Abbey of St Peter. From around 1325 it became the Prior's Lodging, then the Deanery of Gloucester Cathedral from 1541, and from 1941 diocesan offices. It now functions as offices, reception rooms and a restaurant.

The building has a complex building history spanning the early and mid 12th century with major additions and alterations in the early 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. It was refitted internally in the late 16th century and extensively restored with some alterations between 1863 and 1870 by Fulljames and Waller for Dean Law, with further restoration around 1962 by Waller and Ashwell. The construction comprises ashlar and rubble stone, timber framing, with lead and tile roofs.

Plan and Overall Layout

The complex consists of three linked blocks. Block 1, at the south end adjoining the west end of the Cathedral Church, was built in the 12th century and comprises two parallel, front-gabled ranges. The narrow south range contains the slype, originally the monastic outer parlour, which leads to the west alley of the monastic cloister (now the Cathedral Cloister). Above the slype is the former chapel of the medieval lodging. In the 15th century the front of the south range was set back to align with the rebuilt west front of the Cathedral Church. The wider northern range of this block contains an entrance lobby inserted around 1200 and service rooms on the ground floor. Originally each upper floor had a large chamber, later subdivided. A large 14th-century polygonal stair turret links the first block at its north-west corner to the second block.

Block 2 is large and double-depth, originally containing a first-floor hall and chamber aligned on a north-south axis to the west of the first block. Originally 13th century, it was substantially rebuilt in the 14th century, with a courtyard at the rear between the block and the west alley of the cloister.

Block 3, built against the northern end of the second block, comprises the eastern two bays of a 15th-century timber-framed first-floor hall aligned east-west. This hall was reduced to its present length in 1649 and is now known as the Parliament Room. The 15th-century timber-framed hall was built above an undercroft incorporating 13th-century masonry walls from an earlier hall on the site. The northern side of this block faces Miller's Yard.

Exterior

The building ranges from two to three storeys. Block 1 has coped gables to both ranges. The steeply pitched front gable-end wall of the south range was probably rebuilt in the 15th century reusing 12th and early 13th-century features. On the ground floor is a doorway to the slype with nook shafts and moulded semicircular arch, with 15th-century window tracery inserted in the recessed tympanum above a richly carved segmental-arched door lintel. The timber panelled door is dated 1614. On the first floor is a large 19th-century window of three lights in early Perpendicular style, with the upper part of the tracery infilled. To the left a short canted wall with pierced arcaded parapet partly infills the re-entrant angle between the fronts of the two ranges.

The gabled front of the north range was extensively restored in the 19th century and has two bays. On the ground floor is a 13th-century two-bay arcade with shafts to the jambs and richly moulded arches. Each former opening was infilled in the 19th century with a window to the left and a doorway flanked by windows to the right in 13th-century style. On the first floor are two windows with outer jambs and semicircular arches of around 1200, each infilled in the 19th century with a window of four arched lights with shafts to the mullions and early 13th-century style plate tracery. On the second floor are two large two-light windows with 13th-century outer jambs with nook-shafts and moulded arches. The windows were renewed in the mid 14th century with Perpendicular tracery and central transom. Each window arch sits within an applied gablet. Between the window gablets, the head of the steeply pitched roof gable is decorated with a 12th-century blind arcade of five stepped panels with chevron moulding in the arches.

To the left of the front of the block is a 14th-century polygonal stair turret of three stages with offset plinth and a string course defining each stage, topped with a crenellated parapet. In the lower stages, each face of the turret has a slit window placed to accord with the ascent of the stair. In the upper stage each face has a single light with trefoil head. At the junction of the turret with the south face of the second block is a secondary 19th-century turret supported on a corbel in the angle, its upper stage capped by a small spirelet with finial supporting a cross.

Block 2 has angle buttresses in two stages with weathered offsets at its south-west corner and a string course at the base of the crenellated parapet. In the south wall on the ground floor are three two-light 16th-century windows, and on the first floor a large 16th-century four-light window with arched lights and flat head with hoodmould. On the west side is a projecting stack in three stages, with the upper stage and three octagonal flues added in the 19th century. On the first floor to the right of the stack is a 15th-century two-light window; other windows to the left were inserted or altered in the 19th century.

Block 3 comprises two bays of an end-gabled timber-framed first-floor chamber which formerly extended further west. On the north side the upper floor is slightly jettied above a 13th-century stone wall with altered fenestration. The first floor has two bays with close studding between lower and upper intermediate rails. The north-east corner post has carved tracery panels at the foot and is supported on a small curved moulded timber bracket. In each bay is a canted oriel window restored around 1960 on the basis of surviving evidence. The west gable-end wall has 17th-century square panel framing built to close the reduced hall.

Interior

In the 12th-century southern block, the slype in the narrow south range has a barrel vault in three bays defined by transverse ribs. On the upper floor, the former abbot's chapel (now an office entered from the north range) also has a barrel vault with transverse ribs supported on wall shafts with scalloped capitals. The floor is paved with 15th-century encaustic tiles.

The north range is entered through a lobby formed as part of the remodelling of the front around 1200. The lobby has a quadripartite vault with transverse ribs supported on wall shafts with stiff-leaf and trumpet-scallop capitals. In the room to the north of the lobby is a 19th-century timber staircase replacing a former 14th-century stair within the polygonal turret. In the turret wall at first-floor level is a 15th-century stone lantern on a corbel.

On the first floor in the north range is a two-bay lobby of around 1200, with walls featuring shafts with capitals similar to the ground floor lobby, but the vaulting was not carried out. To the east of the first floor lobby is a former chamber with four 12th-century windows in the north wall. Each window has two lights with jambs enriched with billet mouldings and chevron outer mouldings, though the window heads have been altered.

Block 2 has two chambers on the west side of the inner lateral wall within the former 14th-century hall with open timber roof. These two chambers were formed probably in the early 16th century and comprise the Laud Room to the south end and the shorter Henry Room at the north end.

The Laud Room has carved and moulded panelling in a style similar to panelling in Red Lodge, Bristol. The panelling is arranged in five zones of square panels with a frieze between the third and fourth zone and a richly carved frieze and modillion cornice in the crowning entablature. In each of the panels is a recess framed by a semicircular arch supported by miniature fluted pilasters. The doorcases have fluted Ionic pilasters on pedestals and entablatures. Each door has a panel in the centre similar to the wall panels but larger, and a panel above carved with a radiating fluted fan.

The Henry Room has exposed timber roof framing with 16th-century painted decoration and a 16th-century fireplace.

Block 3 has on the ground floor beams supported by a central row of chamfered timber posts. On the first floor, the Parliament Room has walls of exposed timber framing and an open timber roof with central truss with tie beam and secondary arched brace, collar trusses, two purlins to each side and two zones of slightly curved windbraces. In the south wall is a 15th-century ashlar fireplace. Now fixed onto the west wall are portions of a 15th-century wall painting removed from Little Cloister House.