Description

DURHAM AND FRAMWELLGATE THE COLLEGE
NZ 2742 SW (North side)

14/98 Prior's Kitchen (Dean
6/5/52 and Chapter Library)

GV I

Kitchen, now muniment room. 1366-74 by John Lewyn. Coursed squared sandstone
with plinth and ashlar dressings. Octagonal with corner projections making
square plan at ground level. Lantern has stone-flagged roof. South elevation
has gabled angle buttresses flanking paired chamfered lancets; corner bays have
clusped lancet at left, inserted small square window at right; sloped stone coping
to these projections. Top battlemented parapet. Sundial on right buttress.
Lantern has high hipped roof with gablets and gabled dormers.

Interior: coursed squared sandstone with ashlar dressings; later brick insertions;
stone-vaulted roof with 16 ribs springing in parallel pairs from each side, forming
a star with 2 ribs springing from each corner; the central intersections form the
base of the lantern, reconstructed in render and glass c.1970. Each wall has a
relieving arch; ovens on north, south-west and south-east walls have brick
voussoirs, that on north-west has brick segmental head. Round-headed doorways
in north-east wall (2), and beside fire in north-west and south-west, the latter
giving access to a small room in which the rear of an C18 bread oven is seen; the
iron door of the oven is in the rear of the medieval fire. 2-centred arched
openings in east wall, and similar but blind openings in west. The corner rooms
make use of space within the square-cornered additions to the octagonal plan which
serve as buttresses to the vault, the structures being rubble-filled over the rooms.
It is thought that the design of the vault is either original or derived from
mosques as in Cordoba, Spain.

Source: W. Page V.C.H. 1928 reprint 1968, 129.

Listing NGR: NZ2730242069

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17529989

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

• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 4: North: North v. 4 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)