Kings School And Remains Of Abbots Lodging

King's School and Remains of Abbot's Lodging

The Bishops of Gloucester's palace, now an independent school building. Built in 1861 by architect Ewan Christian, the structure was erected on the site of and incorporates some minor remains of a house built around 1316 for the Abbots of the Benedictine Abbey of St Peter. After the Dissolution, from 1541 the building was used as the Bishop's Palace. In 1955 the palace was converted for use as the main building of King's School, housing principally administrative offices and classrooms.

The building is constructed in ashlar with tiled roofs featuring moulded copings to gables and parapets, and brick stacks. The architectural style is an eclectic mixture of 13th and 14th century English Gothic and Jacobean.

The plan comprises a long, irregular block set back from and parallel with Pitt Street, positioned behind the northern flank of the Abbey and Cathedral Precinct Wall. On the north and south sides are several projecting cross wings and gabled features. The principal entrance porch is approximately in the centre of the north side, beneath the west end of the former chapel, which is a parallel attached range with an apsidal east end. The former great hall, built on the foundations of a medieval range and now serving as the school library, occupies the central cross range west of the porch. Service rooms are located in a wing further west, while the principal reception rooms are positioned within the eastern end of the block.

The exterior shows single storey construction for the Great Hall, with two and three storeys, cellar and attic elsewhere. The asymmetrical facades are enlivened by changes in level and differences in the scale of projecting features. The north front comprises the side of the buttressed, three-bay former chapel range with apsidal east end. The left section features offset buttresses and at first-floor level a lancet in each bay. A double, cross-gabled range extends further left, with a three-light window with Perpendicular tracery at first-floor level extending into the right-hand gable. A cross-gabled range to the right displays two two-light windows with Decorated tracery. Further right is a recessed cross gable with two two-light Perpendicular windows, followed by a recessed lateral wing at the west end of the block. Within the right-hand bay of the former chapel range stands an entrance porch between the buttresses, featuring a moulded arch and lean-to roof.

On the south side, the projecting cross gabled end of the Great Hall displays two three-light windows with Decorated tracery. To the right, the front features moulded string courses at second floor and attic-floor levels. Projecting from the lateral range are two short cross-gabled wings with gabled dormers above the main range. On the east front, a large two-storey compass window appears to the left. All windows at the east end of the south front and on the east front have stone mullions and upper transoms in late 16th or early 17th century style.

Interior spaces are linked by a long passage connecting the Great Hall to the principal staircase on the north side at the east end. The open well stair features newels with spiked knops and wrought-iron balustrades with twisted balusters. The stair well windows contain a collection of stained glass of various dates. At the east end, several large reception rooms feature cross-beamed ceilings with carved foliage and paterae at the intersections of the beams. One room contains a stone chimney-piece with quatrefoils in the arch spandrels, possibly dating to the late 14th century and subsequently restored and reused. A ground floor room displays a carved coffered ceiling with bosses, rich ornamentation to the bay window area, and medieval-style carved spandrels with ornamental shields to a stone fireplace.

The former chapel contains arched trusses supported on moulded corbels with richly carved foliage. The Great Hall features trusses with semicircular arched braces to the collar tie and scissor braces above. Windows throughout display panels of medieval and 16th century stained and painted glass, possibly from the former palace.

The library is positioned at right angles above the remains of 14th century domestic accommodation, which has a rectangular plan bounded by very thick walls. The north door features chamfered jambs, and the south door is chamfered with a pointed arch. The south wall contains three piers, probably springers for 14th century undercroft vaulting.

The building is graded for its medieval fabric and for the external architectural quality of Christian's work.