Worcester College
(26) Worcester College stands on the W. side of
Stockwell Street. The walls are of local Oxfordshire
stone and the roofs are slate-covered. Gloucester
College was established in 1298 as a college for Benedictine monks of the province of Canterbury; it
incorporated an earlier establishment founded as a cell
of Gloucester Abbey and from this the college took its
name. The site was given by Sir John Giffard before
1299 and the college was partly controlled by the
general chapter of the Benedictine Order down to its
dissolution. The expenses of the house were levied on
the chief houses of the order who were entitled to send
students and maintain camerae in the college. In 1321
the order purchased the adjacent site of the former Carmelite house. The earliest surviving buildings of the
college are the ranges of Camerae on the S. of the site
built at various times in the 15th century and a short
range of similar Camerae on the N. of the site. These
camerae formed small separate tenements, each one
assigned to one of the great Benedictine monasteries and
sometimes identifiable by the shields-of-arms remaining on the fronts. At the dissolution the buildings were
sold but in 1560 were repaired and occupied by a new
body known as Gloucester Hall. This foundation subsisted till the foundation of Worcester College in 1714
under the will of Sir Thomas Cookes, Bart. The central
portion of the buildings including the Chapel and Hall
was re-built, work being begun in 1720, but the chapel
was not finished till after 1786. The new N. Range
with the Provost's Lodgings at the W. end was built
between 1753 and 1776. In 1824–5 the old buildings
looking on the Pump Quadrangle were heightened
and twenty years later the old kitchen was converted
into rooms and a new Kitchen built. The chapel and
hall were redecorated in 1864 and 1877 respectively.
Worcester College Arms
The college is chiefly noteworthy as retaining certain
of the tenements or camerae attached to the various
Benedictine monasteries. The Provost's Lodgings
form a dignified late 18th-century design.
Architectural Description—The Main Block of the
college, facing Beaumont Street, was re-built between
the years 1720 and 1786. The central part is of three
storeys with a cornice and central pediment. The cornice is continued round the projecting N. and S. wings
which contain the Chapel and Hall respectively; these
wings are symmetrically treated and have each a three-light window of the Palladian type in the E. end.
The W. front of the block is of two main storeys with
an open loggia of round-headed arches on the ground
floor, round-headed windows in the middle bay of the
upper floor and square-headed windows in the side
bays; the front is finished with a cornice and central
pediment. The Hall has an enriched and coved plaster
ceiling and a Corinthian colonnade at the W. end. The
Chapel has, internally, pilasters and columns of the
Ionic order and a coved ceiling with a central saucer-dome. There are two Pictures, (a) a Crucifixion, by a
Low Countries master, of c. 1520, and (b) an Agony in
the Garden, of the School of Rubens, c. 1700.
Worcester College
The N. Range of Camerae now contains the Senior
Common Room and sets of rooms. It is of two storeys
with attics and was built originally in the 15th century
but has been much altered. The N. front has remains
of some original windows with moulded reveals and
square heads, but with the mullions removed. The S.
front also retains some original windows, all now
blocked, and a blocked doorway with a two-centred
head; another doorway, probably modern, has
moulded jambs and a four-centred arch. Inside
the range, which perhaps formed two camerae with
part of a third, the middle room has two 15th-century
moulded ceiling-beams. On the ground and first floors
is some 18th-century panelling. The western part of
this range was destroyed when the New N. Range was
built 1753–73. This range is of three storeys with a
basement and modern attics; the ground floor has a
range of round-headed windows under arches on the S.
front and the building is finished with a cornice and a
pediment over the central bay; the N. front is simpler
and has a cornice and central pediment. The Provost's
Lodgings, at the W. end form a separate design with a
front towards the W., but the main cornice is continued round it. This front has a central feature with
a pediment and a double staircase up to the doorway.
In the boundary-wall on Walton Street, immediately
to the N. of the old N. range, is a 15th-century Gateway.
It has moulded jambs and four-centred arch with a
label and has been blocked; in the blocking is a re-set
16th-century doorway with moulded jambs and four-centred head; above the arch are three shields-of-arms
—(a) probably Winchcomb Abbey, (b) St. Alban's
Abbey, and (c) Ramsey Abbey.
The S. Range of Camerae forms three blocks, the
two first on the E. and S. of Pump Quadrangle and the
third to the W. The first of these blocks, on Worcester
Street, probably represents part of the building put
up by the Abbey of Bury St. Edmunds in 1424–9;
much of this range was destroyed in the 18th-century
alterations and the surviving part heightened probably
in 1824. On the E. front there is an archway blocked
probably in the 17th century; there are also two
blocked windows of the 17th century. On the W. side
are traces of a blocked arch corresponding to that in
the outer wall; further S. is an original doorway with
hollow-chamfered jambs and four-centred arch with
a defaced shield above; above it is a window with a
cinque-foiled head. Inside the block are some exposed
ceiling-beams. The second block is mainly on the S.
of the quadrangle but extends to the W. of it and also
along the E. side up to the block just described. It
was formerly of two storeys but was heightened in 1824.
The range has a number of original and later windows
mostly altered; one in the S. wall is of three four-centred lights in a square head. In the S.E. angle of
the quadrangle is a 15th-century doorway with moulded
jambs and four-centred arch and above it is a small
window of one cinque-foiled light. Inside the range,
which may have contained three or more camerae,
rooms on both the ground and first floor retain their
original moulded ceiling-beams. The W. extension
of this block was the Old Kitchen which seems to have
been built with three adjoining camerae in 1420–3.
It has been much altered and is now converted into
rooms. At the W. end is the large chimney-stack of
the former kitchen. A room on the first floor, forming
part of the Junior Common Room, has a re-set 15th
or 16th-century doorway with an oak frame and four-centred head and is lined with 18th-century panelling.
The long W. Block (Plate 197) of the S. range is the
least altered of the mediæval buildings of the college. It
consists of six buildings or camerae added one to the
other and probably all built in the 15th or the early
part of the 16th century. They are all of two storeys,
with or without attics, and are ashlar-faced on the N.
front. The S. front has a series of gabled dormer-windows, probably additions. The westernmost building has a string-course between the storeys; the doorway has moulded jambs and four-centred arch in a
square head with a label and blank shields and foliage
in the spandrels; the labels have returned stops of
diagonal form; above it is a niche with an ogee
traceried head, flanked by shields, one bearing the
rebus of William Compton, Abbot of Pershore (1504–
27) with a mitre and the other with three cups or
chalices, perhaps for Pershore Abbey; the windows
are original and have square heads; the lower one
retains its mullion and has label-stops like the doorway.
Inside the building are exposed ceiling-beams and one
room is lined with 18th-century panelling. The second
building has an addition at the back, perhaps of the
17th century with a blocked two-light window of that
date. The doorway has a four-centred arch in a square
head with a label finished with scrolled stops and with
trefoiled spandrels; further E. is a window of three
cinque-foiled ogee lights; the window above has been
altered in the 18th century, but between them is a range
of six trefoil-headed panels, all within the same recess.
Inside the building are exposed ceiling-beams and some
re-set panelling of c. 1600. The third building has a
string-course between the storeys; the doorway has
a four-centred arch in a square head with quatre-foiled
spandrels and a label; it is flanked by two-storeyed
bay-windows of two lights, but the mullions of the
upper windows have been removed. On the S. side
are four other original windows, one subsequently
altered. Inside the building are some original early
16th-century moulded ceiling-beams and wall-plates.
The fourth building has a string-course between the
storeys and a doorway with a four-centred arch
in a square head with carved spandrels and a label;
above it is a re-set shield of the arms of Glastonbury
Abbey (formerly in the court near the hall); three of
the windows are original, but one has lost its mullion.
The fifth building has a string-course between the
storeys and a doorway with a four-centred arch in a
square head with trefoiled spandrels and a label; above
it is a shield of the arms of St. Augustine's Abbey,
Canterbury in a cusped panel; the square-headed
windows are all original and the interior has exposed
ceiling-beams. The easternmost building, now the
buttery, has a doorway with a four-centred arch in a
square head with a label and blank shields in the
spandrels; above it is a shield-of-arms of Malmesbury
Abbey; the windows are original, the lower ones
having transoms and the upper ones with the mullions
removed; the E. end has a projecting chimney-stack;
at the back is an addition of the 17th century or earlier.
Inside the building, the ground-floor has original
moulded ceiling-beams. The room on the first floor,
now the Junior Common Room, has a ceiled original roof
of waggon-form with moulded ribs and plain blocks
at the intersections.
Condition—Good.