King Edward'S Gate

The building at 13 King Edward's Gate, Gloucester, is a house incorporating substantial remains of a former gatehouse dating back to the early 16th century, originally known as King Edward's Gatehouse. The early 19th century structure was later extended in the late 19th century. All that remains of the original gatehouse is its west flanking wall, which now forms the front of the house. The wall is constructed of ashlar, with some exposed stone and brick rubble corework. The later house is built of red brick with a flat bituminous felt roof and a tiled roof, and has a brick stack.

The layout includes a single cell block built against the retained west wall of the former gatehouse, with a gabled wing added to the west side, covering an open carriage shed. The decayed remains of the gatehouse’s southwest corner are visible at the southern end of the wall, and an octagonal stair turret at the north end. The foundations of the gatehouse are visible in the street paving.

The two-storey building's west side wall, from the original gatehouse, now constitutes the front façade. Evidence of the former arched carriageway remains, with the badly weathered remains of a moulded west jamb alongside two badly decayed moulded and canopied niches. A stone block carved with arms has been inserted at the bottom of the upper niche. The north-east face of the stair turret features an offset plinth with weathered capping and a moulded string course. It has a two-light window below the string course and a similar window above, both with chamfered jambs and mullions. The entrance doorway, dating from around 1800, is framed in plain stone with a pointed arch containing a fanlight with wrought-iron Gothic tracery. The north front shows evidence of a previous central doorway, flanked by sash windows with 3x4 panes on the ground floor. Two large double sash windows with segmental-arched heads are on the first floor, above the former doorway and the carriage shed.

The interior retains early 19th-century features, including a staircase with stick balusters, and a fireplace in the ground-floor front room with a reeded architrave surround.

The gatehouse was originally constructed for Abbot Parker on the south side of the Cathedral precinct, opposite the Cathedral’s south porch, on the site of an earlier gatehouse. It was demolished in the 17th century to create a wider entrance to the precinct.