Guildford Quaker Meeting House

Summary

Quaker Meeting House built in 1804-6 to a design by John Bevans, a Quaker architect of Plaistow, with later additions.

Reasons for Designation

Guildford Quaker Meeting House of 1804-6 with later extensions, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a purpose-built early C19 Quaker meeting house which retains many quality features including the panelled meeting room and stand;

* built to a design by John Bevans, a Quaker architect of Plaistow;

* despite changes, the building maintains its Georgian character with the original form and use of the meeting house remaining legible.

Historic interest:

* it has a clear and informative history of extensions responding to the needs of the meeting over time.

Group value:

* with a number of Grade II-listed buildings along North Street.

History

The Quaker movement emerged out of a period of religious and political turmoil in the mid-C17. Its main protagonist, George Fox, openly rejected traditional religious doctrine, instead promoting the theory that all people could have a direct relationship with God, without dependence on sermonising ministers, nor the necessity of consecrated places of worship. Fox, originally from Leicestershire, claimed the Holy Spirit was within each person, and from 1647 travelled the country as an itinerant preacher. 1652 was pivotal in his campaign; after a vision on Pendle Hill, Lancashire, Fox was moved to visit Firbank Fell, Cumbria, where he delivered a rousing, three-hour speech to an assembly of 1000 people, and recruited numerous converts. The Quakers, formally named the Religious Society of Friends, was thus established.

Fox asserted that no one place was holier than another, and in their early days, the new congregations often met for silent worship at outdoor locations; the use of members' houses, barns, and other secular premises followed. Persecution of Nonconformists proliferated in the period, with Quakers suffering disproportionately. The Quaker Act of 1662, and the Conventicle Act of 1664, forbade their meetings, though they continued in defiance, and a number of meeting houses date from this early period. Broad Campden, Gloucestershire, came into Quaker use in 1663 and is the earliest meeting house in Britain, although it was out of use from 1871 to 1961. The meeting house at Hertford, 1670, is the oldest to be purpose built. The Act of Toleration, passed in 1689, was one of several steps towards freedom of worship outside the established church, and thereafter meeting houses began to make their mark on the landscape.

Quaker meeting houses are generally characterised by simplicity of design, both externally and internally, reflecting the form of worship they were designed to accommodate. The earliest purpose-built meeting houses were built by local craftsmen following regional traditions and were on a domestic scale, frequently resembling vernacular houses; at the same time, a number of older buildings were converted to Quaker use. From the first, most meeting houses shared certain characteristics, containing a well-lit meeting hall with a simple arrangement of seating. In time a raised stand became common behind the bench for the Elders, so that traveling ministers could be better heard. Where possible, a meeting house would provide separate accommodation for the women’s business meetings, and early meeting houses may retain a timber screen, allowing the separation (and combination) of spaces for business and worship. In general, the meeting house will have little or no decoration or enrichment, with joinery frequently left unpainted.

Meetings for Worship were first held in Guildford in 1668. In 1673, a burial ground with a frontage to Crown Yard (now North Street) was bought, together with a gatehouse tenement, which was altered for £234 and registered in 1689. The plot was extended in 1739. By 1802, the building was in severe disrepair and the following year it was demolished. Also in 1803, a new site in North Street (opposite of the burial ground) was acquired for £105. A new meeting house was built in 1804-6 which opened in February 1806. After 1800, it also became more common for meeting houses to be designed by an architect or surveyor and there was increasing evidence of the influence of polite architecture on meeting house design. Early architects who built several meeting houses include John Bevans of Plaistow (fl. 1789-1808) who designed at least four: Devonshire House, London (from 1789), Westminster (1799), Guildford (Surrey, 1804-6) and Derby (1808). The meeting house at Winchmore Hill, London (1790), has also been attributed to him. He is also known for designing the Friends’ School at Islington (1780s) and the Retreat at York (1794-6), an institution ‘for insane persons of the Society of Friends’.

The carpenter for Guildford was John Silvester and the bricklayer was Edmund Upton. Two Quakers particularly prominent in founding the new meeting house were Morris Birkbeck and William Chandler; their families subscribed the largest amounts towards the new meeting house (1803 list of subscribers). Originally, the meeting house consisted of a large main meeting room, a smaller women’s business meeting room, and a cloakroom. The two meeting rooms were divided by sash shutters.

In 1827, more land was bought to provide a new entrance to North Street. In 1875, another plot to the west was bought to create a new entrance to Ward Street. Major alterations were made in 1898 and 1913, including an extension to the south, the addition of a porch, an upper room above the women’s business meeting room, and the installation of a heating system. In 1914, folding partitions were installed between the two meeting rooms (replacing the original sash shutters) and within the women’s business meeting room. In 1993, extensive repairs were made at a cost of £23,500.

The site was never a proper burial ground although one burial is known to have taken place on the meeting house site: this was the burial of Herbert Spencer in 1835.

In 1927, the detached burial ground of 1673 on North Street was conveyed to the Corporation for use as a public open space, and known as ‘Quakers’ Acre’.

On Ward Street, the site has a boundary wall of gault brick with railings and gates which were added in about 1875.

Details

Quaker Meeting House built in 1804-6 to a design by John Bevans, a Quaker architect of Plaistow, with later additions.

MATERIALS: the main building is of red brick laid in Flemish bond with a hipped slate roof. The porch is similar but laid in stretcher bond. The extension to the south is also of red brick in Flemish bond with a hipped slate roof.

PLAN: oblong main building with a porch to the west and a lower extension to the south, also with a porch.

EXTERIOR: the main building has brick dentilled eaves. Its main elevation faces roughly west and contains two large 24-pane sash windows under gauged-brick segmental heads to the north of the porch. To the south of the porch are 16-pane sashes to the ground and first floors. The porch has a 16-pane sash to the west, and modern arched and glazed doors to the south. The north elevation has a 20-pane sash window. At the north-east corner is a brick chimney. The south elevation has one arched metal casement window to the upper room.

The extension has a metal ventilator flue on the roof and a 16-pane sash to the west. A small lean-to brick porch with a window beside a part-glazed door links the main building and the extension.

INTERIOR: inside the main porch are inscribed bricks which feature the date 1805 and the initials of the founders. The ceiled main meeting room has timber dado panelling and a carpeted timber floor.

The two-tier stand is to the north and has turned end pillars to the two flights of steps. At the north-west is a built-in cupboard. The south wall has a folding partition with some glazed panels; above is further panelling. The east wall has two small, high-level metal windows. The adjoining smaller meeting room has a further folding partition which can divide it into two. There is a large chimneybreast against the east wall.

A staircase with a square newel and square balusters leads to the first-floor room with another blocked chimneybreast to the east.

In the south extension the children’s room has a blocked chimneybreast as well as vertical dado panelling; it adjoins the small kitchen and toilets.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

289116

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Butler, D M, The Quaker Meeting Houses of Britain, (1999), 590-1

Websites
Architectural History Practice, 2016, Friends Meeting House, Guildford, accessed 2 Dec 2019 from http://heritage.quaker.org.uk/files/Guildford%20LM.pdf
Quaker Meeting Houses in Great Britain, accessed 3 Dec 2019 from http://heritage.quaker.org.uk/quaker-gb-meeting-houses-national-overview-report-2017-03.pdf

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