Monastery of St Gregory the Great, with west, south and east cloister ranges, Downside Abbey

The Monastery of St Gregory the Great at Downside Abbey comprises three principal sections: the west monastic range with its cloister, the south (Petre) cloister, and the east (Pollen) wing. Together they enclose three sides of the monastic cloister garth.

The Monastic Range and West Cloister (1873-1876, extended 1899)

The west range was built in 1873-1876 to designs by Dunn and Hansom in Collegiate High Victorian Gothic style, then heightened in two phases in 1892 and 1899. It is constructed of Bath stone ashlar with tile roofs. The double-depth main block runs north-south, forming the western enclosure of the cloister garth. A later sanitary range extends east-west from the north-west corner, running alongside the western end of the abbey church nave. Stair towers stand at the north and south ends.

The principal west elevation has three storeys and attics, comprising seven bays. To the left, a gabled bay projects forward. The central five bays are divided by buttresses with offsets, with a half-projecting octagonal entrance tower with conical roof at the centre. To the right stands a square tower of four full storeys with battlemented parapets. Most windows are of two narrow lights with trefoil heads divided by stone mullions. Ground-floor windows also have transoms and are arranged as plate tracery with carved ornament to their heads, set under a continuous hood mould. The entrance tower windows and the top floor of the square tower also have transoms. The tower base has a central canted bay window. All gables have moulded stone verges and apex crosses. Wide raking dormers sit between the attic gables. The south return of the tower is similar, with the addition of a broad buttressed external stack with tall clustered chimneys, adjoined by a wide canted stair bay with trefoil-headed windows and carved spandrels. A band of repeating Tudor flower ornament marks the original parapet before the tower was raised.

The inner east front has the cloister at ground floor level, of eight bays divided by buttresses with offsets, between the tower to the left and a smaller polygonal winder stair tower at the right (north) end. The main tower has the canted principal stair tower to its left bay, a ground-floor entrance doorway at centre, and the final cloister window bay to the right. This bay rises above the flanking bays as a battlemented tower. Its first-floor window has three lights stepping upwards to reflect the position of the secondary stair added in 1892-1899 to access the two upper floors. The central eight window bays have four gables above mirroring those on the west elevation, with similar fenestration.

The ground floor is double-depth, with rooms arranged off the western side of the west cloister. The cloister has a rib vaulted roof with extensive carved ornament, springing from clustered piers with carved foliate capitals and moulded bases. The roof has banded stone infill and the walls are ashlar. Window bays have timber seats. The floor is laid with polychrome tile in geometric patterns. Doorways to the rooms have shouldered openings with foliate carving to the shoulders; doors have geometric panelling. At the western end a broad stone stair in Baronial style, with extensive moulded, pierced and carved decoration, leads down to the adjoining Petre (south) cloister. At the north end a second stair within the 1899 sanitary wing comprises a wide timber dog-leg stair with barley-twist balusters and heavy square-section newels with Gothic details, rising through all floors. Opposite is a stone newel stair in a narrow external stair turret, which served as the secondary stair until the sanitary wing was built.

Ground-floor rooms include the chapter room, which has an elaborate Gothic chimneypiece with a carved seated figure of St Benedict and angels to the sloping hood. Walls have half panelling and carved foliate corbels carry the roof beams. Similar carved ornament adorns the window reveals. The remaining ground-floor rooms have more modest decorative schemes, with different moulded stone fireplaces in each location with Gothic details, and simplified panelling. The calefactory has a dividing wall with fireplace to one side, flanked by pointed-arched openings.

The upper floors have cells ranged to either side of a central corridor. The first-floor corridor has a ceiling with applied timber ribs carried on diaphragm arches. The cells are simple, some with modest stone fireplaces. The first floor has a small chapel at its centre set over the entrance porch, with a raised dais in the canted bay and a compartmental ceiling of moulded ribs. Towards the southern end, a further stair gives access to the later second and third floors, a simpler version of the stair in the sanitary range. Corridors in the upper floors have flat ceilings and moulded beams with dado rail. Cells in the 1892 addition have windows bringing borrowed light to the corridor, absent from the 1899 section. From the third-floor corridor a cast-iron spiral staircase gives access to the tower roof. The sanitary range interior includes elaborate cast iron radiators and half panelling. Ground-floor lavatories have timber stalls and a decorative cast-iron stand for wash basins. Upper-floor lavatories and bathrooms have modern fittings.

The Petre Cloister (1873-1876)

Built in the 1870s, also by Dunn and Hansom, the Petre cloister is constructed of Bath stone ashlar. It is a single-depth range running east-west between the south stair of the main monastery range and the south end of the Weld (east) cloister.

The exterior is an eleven-bay, single storey range with flat roof level with the cloister garth above. Bays are separated by coped buttresses, each with an angel figure above. Each bay has a five-light Perpendicular window with elaborately carved spandrels including heraldic devices. Above runs a continuous ornamented frieze and arcaded parapet. The westernmost bay has a doorway with a shouldered-arched opening and carved tympanum within a hood mould.

The cloister adjoins the monastic range at the foot of the south-west stair in the west cloister, with a glazed partition between. At the western end a sculpted figure group depicting the Martyrdom of St Thomas of Canterbury is set within a niche in the wall, with a hood mould running over it and continuing over all windows along the cloister. The flat roof has a moulded timber cornice and applied ribs, carried on elaborately moulded beams with arch braces springing from wall posts.

The East Wing (1970-1975)

Built in 1970-1975 by Francis Pollen of Brett and Pollen, the east wing is a concrete-framed building with limestone ashlar cladding and exposed structural concrete elements, some with bush-hammered surface treatment. It is built upon the partially-subterranean Weld Cloister, which links the school and the abbey church, orientated north-south. It was built to provide a school refectory on the ground floor, a monks' refectory on the first floor, and guest rooms above, along with administrative accommodation and a new entrance to the abbey church. A planned third floor was not built.

The east wing has two elevations. The east is primary, facing the road into the abbey grounds; the west forms the east side of the cloister garth. Both elevations are based on repeating bays. On the ground and first floors of the east elevation, bays are articulated by chamfered vertical uprights in the manner of pilasters of the giant order. On the ground floor, the school refectory has wide windows in metal frames with narrow glazing bars. The recessed angled sill and apron are formed of a bush-hammered concrete panel. Above, the monks' refectory has full-height glazing filling T-shaped openings; bush-hammered panels indicate the floor plate. The second floor is jettied: the ends of transverse beams project at each bay division and support a deep concrete bressumer with triangular projections. Each projection is glazed with a two-sided casement window. The elevation terminates in a parapet following the angled line of the second floor. The seventh bay contains the entrance through timber double doors with narrow vertical lights. The elevated covered way linking with the library adjoins the elevation above the entrance, and above that is a large window with vertical glazing bars forming narrow lights. At the junction with the school to the left, the elevation steps back and the ashlar is carefully blended with the earlier elevation, which contains small trefoil windows. At the junction with the abbey church, the elevation steps back with a wide ground-floor opening and narrow windows to each floor above.

On the west elevation a steep cutting from the higher ground level of the quadrangle reveals the elevation of the Weld Cloister, a series of bays with pointed arched recesses containing paired trefoil lancets. Pollen's elevation extends flush above, continuing the bay arrangement of the earlier building. On the first floor, wide windows light the corridor within. A concrete canopy above matches the bressumer on the east elevation, with a triangular projection above each window. The second floor is recessed and reflects its east-facing equivalent, with a pointed window to each bay.

Interiors are characterised by exposed materials expressing the structure, minimally adorned and carefully finished. Buff brick is used throughout, laid in stretcher bond with flush pointing. Ceilings have deep transverse beams of smooth concrete resting on massive concrete padstones. Between the beams, ceilings are generally match-boarded, and floors quarry tiled.

The main stair is an open well of cantilevered concrete steps between concrete landings, with a metal handrail with widely-spaced balusters and rails. Another stair rises from the Weld cloister up to the north cloister and abbey church. This broad passage has match-boarded ceilings and is top lit from narrow transverse openings. The 19th-century pointed arch of the Weld cloister is echoed at the top of the stair in brick. Similarly detailed corridors have glass globe wall light fittings and timber benches.

The monks' refectory is the principal interior space. The room is lit along one wall by full-height windows which step outward and upward at the top, filling the space between the beams and bressumer. Between the beams, the ceiling is canted downwards along the central axis, reflecting the upward-sloping angle of the window arches. Walls have a match-boarded dado and there are two rows of white-glazed pendant light fittings. On the second floor, offices and guest rooms have plastered walls and simple joinery.