Gloucester Quaker Meeting House

The Gloucester Quaker Meeting House was built between 1834 and 1835 to designs by Samuel Whitfield Daukes. A two-storey entrance lobby was added in 1879, and single-storey additions followed in 1946. The original building and the 1879 addition are constructed of red brick in Flemish bond, with stone dressings and slate roofs.

The building has a rectangular plan, with an entrance hall projecting to the northeast. The original 1834-1835 single-storey section has a hipped roof. The front elevation’s outer bays retain tall, rubbed brick, round-arched windows set in arched recesses, originally containing fixed windows with glazing bars (likely replacements from 1879). The rear elevation also features two brick round-arched windows with stone sills.

The projecting entrance lobby of 1879 has a central door framed by a brick cambered arch, with a round-arched window above. The window is framed by giant brick pilasters rising to an open pediment. Three low, flat-roofed brick additions, dating from 1946, are located on either side of the entrance lobby and against the western flank wall.

The interior contains two meeting rooms, lit by high-level windows at the front and back (two in the main room, one in the smaller room which is partially obscured by the 1879 addition). Both rooms have plastered walls and flat, plastered ceilings with moulded cornices and a central rose/ventilation point. Additional covered wooden ventilators are set into the walls. Vertical sliding deal panelling, extending the full height, separates the two spaces, within arched openings. The central opening has a depressed arch and incorporates shutters that slide both up and down. The outer openings are round-arched, slightly lower, and include communicating doors. At the east end of the main meeting room is an unusually high stand with panelled front and dado, five steps up on either side flanked by moulded handrails, turned newels and stick balusters, with the handrail continuing along the front, supported by stubby wooden piers. The floor is timber boarded, with metal heating grilles. Fixed seating and the dado panelling continue around the north and south sides of the main room and around two sides of the smaller meeting room, which is interrupted on the west side by doors to the 1946 addition and a central, arched, plastered fireplace.

The 1879 entrance hall has an encaustic tile floor, a staircase leading to an upstairs classroom on the left, and a small committee room to the right. The 1946 additions provide space for toilets, a kitchen, and a store room.