Queens College

Queens College is a school built between 1845 and 1846 by James Wilson of Bath and London, originally serving as the Wesleyan Collegiate Institution in Taunton. This large, symmetrical Tudor Gothic building features a central tower with wings extending to the right and left. It has two storeys, with the centre rising to three storeys. The exterior is constructed of ashlar stone and topped with slate roofs, featuring parapets on either side. The gable ends have paired polygonal stacks flanking the tower, which is adorned with a crenellated parapet, a panelled frieze, string courses, corner buttresses, and rectangular traceried bell openings. Above the entrance, there is a four-light oriel window with a crenellated top and ogee dripmoulds. The building has two-storey bays on either side under gables, with openwork parapets at the second floor level. The main front includes buttresses with setoffs and finials that rise through the parapets. The first-floor windows have continuous dripmoulds and recessed panels between the storeys. The ends of the main gabled wings feature very large mullioned and transomed windows with traceried oculi above, and diagonal buttresses with finials. The individual lights of the windows have curved heads and marginal glazing bars.

Inside, many original features remain, including an open-well staircase with a Gothic arcaded balustrade and a panelled soffit, moulded ceiling beams with bosses at the intersections, doors with arched panels, and the ‘Great Hall’ (formerly the schoolroom) which has wall shafts, moulded intersecting ceiling beams with bosses, and a gallery at one end with an arcaded panelled front.