Aylesbury Quaker Meeting House

The Aylesbury Quaker Meeting House was constructed between 1726 and 1727, with a subsequent extension added to the south-east, likely in the early 19th century. The building was refurbished in 1933 and again in 2010.

The building is primarily red brick, with some black glazed headers laid in a header bond. The roof is covered in clay tiles and incorporates a modern skylight on the south-eastern slope.

The meeting house has a rectangular meeting room oriented north-west to south-east. This is adjoined at the south-east end by an extension with a cat-slide roof, projecting at right angles in the south-east corner and creating a secondary entrance.

The principal south-western elevation features a moulded brick cornice under slightly overhanging eaves. A central entrance is defined by a pair of two-panel doors, with the upper panels glazed with leaded lights and a two-light leaded fanlight above. The roof slope forms a hood over the doorway. These features likely date from the 1933 refurbishment, when an earlier porch was probably removed, although the door frame may be original. A small-paned paired timber casement window is located to the south-east of the entrance, set within the original window opening. A window to the north-west has been widened with an additional casement, and both windows have timber lintels. The south-east extension’s entrance has a bracketed canopy over a door with multi-pane leaded glazing.

The rear, or north-western, elevation is plain, with a pair of shallow brick relieving arches just above ground level. The south-east extension has a plinth of stone rubble.

Inside, the meeting house comprises a large meeting room and a smaller area at the south-east end, now incorporating the later entrance lobby and a kitchen at the north-east end—all fittings within are modern. This smaller space may originally have served as a separate women’s meeting room. An exposed timber-framed wall separates the two spaces; it was possibly originally external and may have been weatherboarded, though it is now considered more likely that it was always internal, potentially fitted with shutters (which were recorded as added in 1810, though no physical evidence of these shutters remains). A brass plaque on a lower rail commemorates Walter Rose, who restored the meeting house. The main meeting room has plastered walls and a perimeter dado with alternating square panelling and tongue and groove boarding. Fixed perimeter benches, some with shaped ends based on the design at the Jordans, Buckinghamshire meeting house, are incorporated into the dado. The raised height of the dado at the northern end suggests the former location of an elders' stand. The ceiling is now at collar level, exposing three roof trusses featuring tie beams (with modern reinforcements), struts rising to clasped purlins, and dragon beams at the corners.