Description

LANCASTER

SD4761NW CHURCH STREET
1685-1/6/90 (North side)
18/02/70 No.96
Church House
(Formerly Listed as:
CHURCH STREET
No.96)

GV II

House, now offices. Late C18, altered c1840, c1910 and late
C20. Squared coursed sandstone with ashlar dressings, above an
ashlar basement, with roughly coursed rubble on the rear and
gable walls. Slate roof. Double-depth plan with, on the left,
a wide carriage entrance which gives access to the yard and
former garden, and to the house doorway. The site slopes from
left to right.
3 storeys above a tall basement, and 4 bays with chamfered
quoins, nosed sill bands on each floor, and a cornice. All the
windows have moulded architraves and glazing bar sashes; some
of the sashes to the upper storeys are late C20 restorations.
The carriageway entrance has a moulded semicircular arch with
a keystone and impost blocks; the doors have vertical raised
and fielded panels. The doorway is on the right, halfway along
the passage, and has a moulded architrave and a door with 6
raised and fielded panels.
To the rear, on the left of the ground floor, is a canted bay
window of ashlar with 12-pane sashes which was added, probably
c1840, and, because of the fall of the land from right to
left, is supported on an arrangement of beams and piers. On
the first floor above it are signs of a now-demolished
conservatory, which was entered from the house through a pair
of French windows with margin lights.
INTERIOR: unusual plan, with large open-well staircase in a
spacious compartment to right of entrance, so that its line
cuts across the windows of the 2nd bay of the front. The
staircase runs at a shallow pitch from basement to 2nd floor,
where it was altered c1910 and subsequently. It has an open
string, 3 turned balusters per tread (which are slender but
swell towards the middle) and a mahogany handrail. The back of
1st floor altered c1910 to make one room, with a complicated
arrangement of ceiling beams to support the 2nd floor, where
the area of bays 2-4 is occupied by a high meeting room, open
to the roof; this is supported on king-post trusses.
HISTORY: its early history is far from clear, but it may have
been substantially rebuilt in the mid C19. In 1910 it was
bought by trustees, among whom were Henry A Paley and Geoffrey
L Austin (who presumably designed the alterations) and
converted into a Church House, ie a church hall for meetings,
bazaars and performances, for the Parish Church of St Mary,
now The Priory (qv).

Listing NGR: SD4746261895

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26489519

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)