Details
LICHFIELD
SK1109NW THE CLOSE
1094-1/4/230 (West side)
05/02/52 (Consecutive)
1-12 and 12A Vicars' Close (flats)
and Vicars' Hall
(Formerly Listed as:
THE CLOSE
Vicars' Close Nos 1-12, 12a)
GV II*
Four ranges of houses and common hall for the Vicars' Choral,
now flats, comprising the upper court of the Vicars' Close.
Mostly C15, part probably earlier, the common hall rebuilt
1756 and the west range, No.5, rebuilt 1764. Nos 8 & 9
restored 1990.
Timber-frame with brick stacks and brick rebuilding; tile
roofs. 2-storey north range, Nos 6-9, is timber-framed with
jettied 1st floor; brick ground floor to No.7.
Plain entrances, that to No.6 has half-glazed door, Nos 7 and
8 have plank doors, No.9 has 2-panel door in architrave.
Varied fenestration, mostly small-paned casements; No.6 has
small window to angle; No.7 has 1990 reconstructed oriel
window with leaded glazing, 2 tiny flat-roofed dormers; No.8
has shuttered ground floor window with 3-light leaded casement
to former oriel above, soon (1990) to be replaced by
reconstruction, 2-light window to left has moulded mullion;
No.9 has shuttered ground floor window, 1st floor being
restored, no windows. Rear has much brick rebuilding to left
end; 4 big projecting stacks with offsets; varied
fenestration, mostly small windows. Left end facing Beacon
Street has lean-to outshut and brick stack.
INTERIOR: chamfered beams and flat joists, segmental-headed
brick fireplaces; No.9 has winding stair and wall cupboard,
recorded as having arch-braced collar trusses, No.6 with attic
floor of re-used C15 joists. East range, Nos 10, 11, and 12,
of 2 storeys, mostly with brick underbuilding to close-studded
1st floor; No.12, extensively remodelled in C17, stuccoed
brick and slightly taller. No.10 has entrance to north range
with leaded overlight to wide-boarded door, No.11 has
4-flush-panel door and No.12 has entrance to passage with wide
boarded door. Windows are 3-light casements to left end,
leaded cross-casements to right end, which has 2-light
casement in gabled dormer. Cross-axial stack and end stack to
No.12.
Rear has timber-framing, with brick lean-to to left end, and
gabled range over entrance passage; north gable end has raking
buttress and projecting brick stack. No.10 recorded as having
C18 splat baluster staircase.
South range, Nos 1-4, is varied, mostly 2 storeys; No.1 has
probably C16 close-studded timber-framed gabled addition,
entrance with moulded pilasters and frieze, overlight to
wide-boarded door, 2-light leaded casements; No.2 has brick
front with wall plate, entrance with half-glazed door, 2-light
casements and pegged cross-casement; No.3 projects with brick
front, right angle plan, entrance with overlight to 4-panel
door, segmental-headed 2-light casements, left return has
gable and similar windows; No.4 largely rebuilt c1756 and
adjoins the common hall, cogged brick frieze, segmental-headed
passage to lower court, varied segmental-headed windows, end
stacks. Rear has adjacent rear of hall, with entrance and tall
leaded stair window, 4-light casements to No.4; No.3, probably
C14 with C15 alterations, has timber-framed 1st floor with
remains of engaged shafts to storey posts, big lateral stack
to right; range to right of brick, part with lean-to outshut,
part with cross-casements; timber-framed end gable.
INTERIORs: No.1 recorded as having inserted early coffered
ceiling, No.3 as having 4-bay timber frame, No.4 and hall as
having some remaining interior features, much may be hidden.
Vicars' Hall has elevation to Beacon Street: brick 2-storey
gabled range, coped gable with plaster eaves band and blind
keyed roundel; terrace with early C20 brick lozenge parapet;
entrance has canopy and half-glazed door. Segmental-headed
windows, 16-pane sash to ground floor flanked by narrow
windows with 8-pane sashes, 8-pane and 16-pane sashes to 1st
floor flank blocked window, formerly oriel, 12-pane and 9-pane
sashes to left return; stack to left of ridge. West range,
No.5, now 2 flats: brick with stucco dressings, end stacks;
2-storey, symmetrical 3-window range; top cornice; entrance
with Tuscan porch and glazed door; windows with rubbed brick
flat arches, 4-pane horned sashes to ground floor, narrow
8-pane sashes flank entrance, 1st floor has 4/8-pane sash,
6/9-pane sash with thick glazing bars and 9-pane sash.
Rear facing Beacon Street has stone plinth, sill bands,
projecting ground floor window with cornice and tripartite
sashed window in eared architrave and flanking Venetian-form
sashes, small 1st floor windows have rubbed brick flat arches
over 6-pane sashes; altered interior.
The Vicars' Close is an important surviving example, perhaps
the best one after the Vicars' Close at Wells, forming an
attractive group to the north west of the Cathedral.
(Victoria History of the County of Stafford: Greenslade M W:
Lichfield: Oxford: 1990-: P.62-64; Drury P: The Capitular
Estate of Dean and Chapter of Lichfield Cathedral: 1987-).
Listing NGR: SK1141009717
