New Inn

New Inn, Northgate Street, Gloucester

Inn, now hotel, restaurant (No. 16), and two shops (Nos. 18 and 20). Built in the mid-15th century with many later alterations and minor additions. Designed by J Twining.

The building is constructed from a massive timber frame of oak with rendered panels including some original lathe and plaster nogging, and brick partly rendered. Brick stacks support plain tile roofs on the north range, while the other ranges have gabled and hipped slate roofs.

The structure forms a large rectangular building of four ranges enclosing a central courtyard, entered from Northgate Street through a carriage way in the west range. Within the courtyard, open galleries provide access to chambers on each upper floor of the four ranges. The chambers, originally measuring 7.9 metres by 4.7 to 5.9 metres, have since been subdivided. Ground-floor space is underbuilt beneath these galleries. On Northgate Street, the north side of the carriage way contains two shops, while the south side accommodates the restaurant. A cross-gabled wing projects from the south end of the east range. An enclosed yard at the rear of the main building is accessed from the main courtyard through a carriage way at the south end of the east range.

All four ranges enclosing the main courtyard rise to three storeys with attics. The west range originally presented seven framed bays with continuous jetties to the upper floors. In the late 18th century, the front above the shop-fronts was remodelled as a rendered facade with sash windows. Further alterations in 1924 added boards imitating timber storey posts supporting a plate at eaves level with a parapet of small panel framing above. The north bay was restored to its original jettied form in 1924. The ground floor now contains 20th-century shop-fronts to the left and restaurant front to the right of the carriage way.

At the north-west corner stands an original, richly decorated dragon post carved with a niche containing a mutilated figure of an angel under a pinnacled canopy, with panels of Perpendicular tracery. This supports carved brackets below the dragon beam. The former first-floor jetty to the right of the carriage way is supported by a gilded bracket with leaves carved in the spandrel on the exposed left side of the bracket. At first-floor level, the jetty of the restored bay is concealed by a projecting shop-front. The first-floor dragon post, carved with Perpendicular panels, supports a moulded bracket to the dragon beam in the jetty, with a moulded bressumer at second-floor level. On both upper floors are restored intermediate rails with close studding below and 20th-century three-light timber-framed casements with upper transoms and leaded lights above. To the right of the restored bay, the second bay on the first floor contains a late 18th-century large tripartite sash window with glazing bars (3x4 panes and 1x4 in the side-lights). Otherwise all bays on both floors contain sashes with glazing bars (3x4 panes on the first floor, 3x3 panes on the second floor).

In New Inn Lane, the north return elevation is jettied at both upper-floor levels with moulded bressumers supporting bay posts and in most bays intermediate rails with close studding. The east front of the east range was originally jettied on both upper floors but is now altered in part.

Within the courtyard, a continuous gallery at first-floor level runs on all sides, with evidence for wooden mullioned windows with traceried heads. Access is provided by an external flight of stairs, originally positioned elsewhere and rebuilt in the north-east corner in the 19th century. On the east side at ground-floor level, a carriage way to the right leads to the rear courtyard, while to the left is a large tripartite window with glazing bars. The plain balustrade front to the gallery bears the inscription "NEW INN" in lettering which replaces a 19th-century original. Above the balustrade is an arcade of six bays, probably the original timber posts encased or replaced in the late 18th century as piers with impost moulding and segmental arches. The second floor extends over the gallery with a pair of linked cross gables above projecting from the lateral roof over the east range. The gables have plain timber barge boards and knopped finials. On the second floor below each gable is a sash with glazing bars (4x4 panes).

On the north side, the walls and gallery parapets are rendered, with later door and window openings at ground-floor level. In the open gallery at first-floor level and in a gallery at second-floor level, the original posts are partly concealed by the parapets above. On the south side, the jettied first floor is underbuilt at the east end with a projecting porch containing a glazed door and windows with glazing bars. The gallery above is similar to the gallery on the north side, with wide boxed eaves, possibly the encased jetty of a former upper storey. On the east side, the carriage way leading to Northgate Street is framed by a pair of massive moulded timber posts rising to the underside of the second-floor jetty, with an arched brace to either side supporting the jetty. Above the carriage way lintel beam is an early infill wall of close stud framing with an inserted 18th-century sash with glazing bars (3x4 panes). On the second floor is exposed framing, probably a later remodelling, with two inserted 18th-century sashes with glazing bars (3x4 panes).

Internally, timber-framed walls, posts and beams are exposed throughout the building. In the roofs to each range except for two central bays in the west range, the north and east ranges contain closed trusses with diminishing principal rafters with upper and lower collar ties clasping upper and lower purlins. This is an unusual example in a more south-eastern carpentry tradition, featuring three vertical struts between the principal beam and the lower collar and two vertical struts between the lower and upper collars. Between the two central bays in the west range above the carriage way is an open truss with run-out chamfers to the principal rafters, collars and purlins, indicating the former existence of an upper hall or chamber. Panelling in a suite on the first floor was installed in the 20th century.

The New Inn was originally built as a large hostelry by the Benedictine Abbey of St Peter, constructed by John Twyning, a monk of the abbey, on the site of an earlier inn. At the dissolution of the abbey, the inn passed to the Dean and Chapter of Gloucester Cathedral and was leased to various inn holders until sold in 1858. The building is the most complete surviving example of a medieval courtyard inn with galleries. The tradition that the inn was built to provide lodgings for pilgrims to the tomb of Edward II was not recorded before the 18th century.