The Fleece Hotel, 19, 19A, and 21 Westgate Street

Summary

A complex of inn and shops, in three ranges dating from the 1470s but with alterations in the 16th to 19th centuries; the great inn range is built over a late C12 undercroft. Of exceptional interest for its degree of survival and the evidence it provides of the commercial life of Gloucester since the medieval period.

Reasons for Designation

The Fleece Hotel, 19 Westgate Street, with 19a and 21 Westgate Street and the detached former kitchen range to the rear, all built in the early 1470s, the great inn range over a C12 undercroft, are listed at Grade I, for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* for the exceptionally well-preserved and demonstrably early vaulted stone undercroft, constructed in the 1180s, which lies under the great inn range;
* the great inn range, built in the 1470s, is a high-status timber-framed building with very well made carpentry, with extensive early survival and clear evidence of its construction and evolution;
* the west range, contemporary with the great inn range, is a rare example of a detached kitchen range in an urban setting, which has functioned as part of The Fleece since its construction, and has good-quality framing and clear evidence of its evolution, retaining its original smoke bay and subsequently-inserted massive, C16 chimney stack;
* the street front range, also built in the 1470s as shops below accommodation, retains a good proportion of its medieval timber frame, demonstrating clear evidence of its original form, and of its subsequent evolution, as well as its relationship to the contemporary great inn and detached kitchen ranges; the ground-floor units have remained in commercial uses since their construction;
* all three timber-framed ranges have remains of surviving early paint schemes.

Historic interest:
* this group of three ranges is of exceptional interest for its degree of survival and the evidence it embodies of the commercial life of Gloucester from the C15 onwards, and in particular the evidence of its functioning as inn complex from at least the C16 to the late C20;
* the stone undercroft and the timber-framed ranges offer important evidence for building techniques of the C12 and 1470s respectively, and of slightly later plain schemes of painted decoration.

Group value:
* as part of a group of early timber-framed commercial buildings and merchants’ houses in Westgate Street, the mercantile heart of medieval Gloucester, many of which, like these buildings, have later refrontings to the street which mask their early origins.

History

The Fleece complex stands on the south side of Westgate Street, which in the medieval period was the main route from the city to the River Severn to the west, with long plots extending back from either side of the street, and relatively narrow street frontages. By the early C12, long, narrow burgage plots had been laid out along the principal streets in the city, including Westgate Street. The current Fleece complex occupies two plots which were generally leased together from the C15 onwards, with a third plot taken in during the C20.

The earliest existing element of the site is the large stone undercroft which now stands under the great inn range, and was built in the late C12. Recent analysis of the undercroft indicates a date of construction probably in the 1180s, given the evidence of the style of the capitals to the columns from which the vaults spring. No documentary evidence survives from this period, but slightly later documents show that the plot was held by a wine merchant, David Dunning, from 1200 to 1228; Dunning lived in the building then on the site, and it is reasonable to assume that the undercroft was used as a wine cellar in this period. Documents of the 1220s to the 1240s show that there was a functional separation between the front and rear of the plots, with shops along Westgate Street which were separate from the functions to the rear. This arrangement was enshrined in the later, surviving, buildings on the site. By the early C14, there were six shops along the Westgate Street frontage, with a central entrance. The easternmost shop was described as being in front of the ‘hall’ which was the principal house on the site, and this high-status structure must have been built over the undercroft, set back from the street behind the street-front buildings. While the undercroft has been truncated at its northern end, it is likely that it never extended as far as the street frontage, like the building above, instead terminating south of the commercial units fronting the street. There is some fragmentary evidence in the fabric of the south wall which indicates that the upper parts of the C12 building were in part built in stone, though it is unlikely that this applied to the whole structure, and there is too little evidence to indicate anything more about its form.

The site was comprehensively redeveloped in the late 1470s, by the Benedictine abbey of Gloucester, which appears to have bought the site via an intermediary in 1475. By 1534 the site is referred to as a ‘magnum hospitium’ or great inn, but there is insufficient evidence to confirm that the rebuilding just after 1475 was specifically as an inn at that time. The late 1470s work saw the construction in a single phase, confirmed by dendrochronological dating, of the three principal timber-framed ranges which survive on the site: the great inn range, partly built over the C12 undercroft; the street-front range; and the west range, which was a detached kitchen incorporating a bakehouse, constructed a very short time after the completion of the adjacent street-front range. The ranges were structurally separate from each other, but closely set together, and it is clear that their disposition reflected the earlier arrangement of buildings on the site, including the separate use of the shops on the street front. The rear wall of the street front range in 21 Westgate Street and the north wall of the west range both survive, and are built with a very narrow but definite gap between them.

The evidence of continuously numbered carpenters’ marks in the great inn range, and their extrapolation to include Frame I which has since been demolished, means that there would have been a narrow gap of about 1.5m between the north wall of this building and the rear wall of the street front range. The original function of the great inn range is not clear; it does not have a typical domestic layout, even given the variance which can be found in urban domestic buildings, and it has no identified original heating arrangement. Neither, though, does it show evidence of some of the key features of inns of the period, such as external galleries to give independent access to the accommodation. The building appears, rather, to have been constructed to allow flexible uses, which would appeal to a wider range of tenants, though it is clear from documentary sources that from the C16 onwards it functioned frequently, if not exclusively, as an inn, and always as an inn from the C17.

The street front range built in this phase consisted of four self-contained commercial units of roughly equal width, with a narrower passageway bay between them. Carpenters’ marks on the trusses of the two surviving units at the western end, which are marked IIII and V, indicate that there were three further frames to the east, which would have brought the complete range to the full width of the plot. The building was double-jettied to the street front and had self-contained cellars for each unit, which appear to have had shops on the ground floors, with cellars for storage, and accommodation above.

The west range is of two storeys, and each of the ground and first floors are lower than those in the other two ranges. The range was divided by frames I – IIII into three rooms, the northern and central rooms larger than the narrower bay to the south, which formed a smoke bay. Documentary evidence indicates that the west range and the great inn range functioned together as a large and important tenement, and the evidence of the fabric shows a clear distinction in status between the two ranges, with the west range serving an ancillary function to the higher status great inn range, which has no evidence of early arrangements for heating or cooking. The structural evidence of the west range strongly suggests that it originally formed a detached kitchen range, with the central room and possibly the northernmost ground-floor room used as a kitchen, with the smoke bay immediately to the south serving its functions, and the other rooms serving as additional chambers. Documentary sources support this interpretation: the lease of 1534 includes reference to a ‘bakehouse’ incorporated on the site, and C18 leases make frequent reference to ‘the kitchen’, which was a key building on the site. Leases also show that from at least the C16 onwards, the two buildings were always leased together.

All three ranges went through a continual process of updating and renewal in subsequent centuries. The C16 probably saw the ceiling over of at least one of the first-floor rooms in the great inn range, and probably the insertion of the existing large stone chimney stack in the west range, serving an equally large ground-floor fireplace, which might have replaced the use of the smoke bay entirely at this date. Surviving paint schemes over much of the great inn range and in the street-front range are likely to date from the C16; these are plain schemes, with red paint employed in much of the great inn range.

In the C17, more structural changes were made, including the raising of the height of the floor in the northern room of the great inn range, to bring it level with the remainder of the ground floor. One of the floor beams has been dated to 1645, indicating that the work was carried out shortly after this date. The most significant change in this period was the addition of the south-west cross-wing to the great inn range, with which it functioned despite offset floor levels between the two, providing additional accommodation in relation to the inn on its first and second floors. The ground floor may have had a service function, possibly in relation to the detached kitchen across the courtyard. There is also evidence that alterations were made to the southern bay of the great inn range in association with this work, including the possible insertion of a chimney (since removed) in place of the earlier stair, which was replaced with a larger stair in the south-east corner of the building. A ceiling was also introduced to the southernmost room of the great inn range, and part of the southern elevation replaced in brick. The large room to the north also received a new ceiling, with timbers run along the purlins at collar level, and the sloping pitch of the roof on either side and the ceiling under the collar then lined with laths for plastering. Fragments of the plaster remain, with a possible decorative scheme of painted stars. A similar ceiling arrangement is discernible in the northern first-floor room in the west range, indicating that this was in use as a chamber. The changes in the complex in the C17 support the documentary evidence that it was in use as an inn in this period.

By the late C18 the site was in poor condition, and when the lease was relinquished in 1772, reverting to the Dean and Chapter of Gloucester Cathedral, the Dean arranged a campaign of repairs. The site was relet in 1778, and subsequently sold in 1799. The part of the complex originally occupied by the eastern half of the street-front range, north of the great inn range, remained part of the same holding until this time, when it was sold separately, and the buildings completely reconstructed in the C19 (17 Westgate Street, unlisted), with the loss of all the C15 fabric at this end of the range. A series of alterations appears to have been made either in the late C18 campaign, or following this sale in 1799. These included the insertion of a large brick stack to provide fireplaces at the northern end of the great inn range, on ground and first floors. The large bay windows on the ground floor were created in the same period, and new partitions introduced to alter the circulation around both floors of the inn. It is likely that the geometric paint schemes which survive within the street-front range at ground and first-floor levels were added in the C18.

A further significant phase of change took place in about 1805, including the replacement of parts of the external timber frame of the great inn range in brick, necessitated by the construction of a brush factory hard against the building on the adjacent plot to the east, which would have blocked the windows on this side of the range. The street-front range was also altered in the early C19, with the jettied timber-framed elevation to Westgate Street trimmed back, and refronted in brick, with new sash windows. A lateral stack between the two surviving units was inserted at the same time, heating rooms on both first and second floors. By 1852, 19A Westgate Street had become The Fleece Tap, a public house, giving the Fleece a street-front presence, and by 1887, 21 Westgate Street and part of the west range to its rear had been turned into the Fleece’s restaurant, shown on the Goad fire insurance map of that date.

The Fleece suffered a significant fire in June 1874, which destroyed some of the early-C19 structures in the southern part of the yard. Stables were rebuilt on the footprint of the earlier structure, later altered to garaging. By 1914, the site was owned by Samuel Rich, who had taken over the licence in 1908. Rich brought the undercroft into use as a public bar, and added superficial historicising details to other parts of the complex. In 1914, a new garage block (not included) with accommodation over was built in the southern part of the site, along with other facilities, since greatly altered or demolished. In 1919, Rich had 19A Westgate Street refronted, with faux timber framing, a carved and pierced Jacobean style pediment, and a loosely domestic revival shop front for the public house. This period is also likely to have seen the rebuilding in brick of the east wall of the west range, and the insertion of steel girders for reinforcement.

In 1972, the adjacent building to the west, 23 Westgate Street (not included), was purchased and incorporated into the Fleece complex. This building occupies a former burgage plot which was the property of St Oswald’s Priory, and was certainly developed by 1455, when a ‘newly built’ structure is recorded, though it must have been occupied prior to this, probably by a commercial building, given its location. This building was extensively reconstructed after about 1850, when it was taken over by the Norwich Union Fire Insurance Company, which created a three-storey building with a classical façade and a high ground floor behind a gated opening, to accommodate their fire engine. The building was purchased in 1972 by the Trustees of Mr S J Rich, and incorporated into the Fleece Hotel. 23 Westgate Street was reconstructed after this point, probably to remove the discrepancy between the floor levels in this range and the street front range of The Fleece, and allow easier communication between the two; the work amounted to an almost complete rebuilding, aside from the long party walls which had been constructed in 1850. After 1972, the upper floors of the street-front range were turned over to hotel accommodation, with some associated reordering to allow access from the west range to the rear, and the existing faux timber framing was extended across all of 19A, 21 and 23 Westgate Street to unify the street front.

In the 2020s, after a long period of disuse and deterioration, the buildings were largely stripped back to their frames in advance of repairs and refurbishment, which enabled detailed survey and analysis of the fabric of all three buildings, resulting in new understanding and reinterpretation of the buildings, reflected in this List entry.

Details

A medieval inn and shops complex, dating from the C15, with alterations in the C16, C17, C18, C19 and C20, in three ranges; the great inn range is built over a C12 undercroft. The buildings roughly form three sides of a courtyard on the south side of Westgate Street, with the street front range to the north, onto Westgate Street; to its rear, extending southwards, the former kitchen range, usually referred to as the west range, and on the other side of the courtyard, behind the current 17 Westgate Street (unlisted) lies the great inn range, running north-south, with an additional room added at its south-west corner. Various outbuildings lie to the south and east. The buildings abut the neighbouring buildings to the east and west.

THE UNDERCROFT
The C12 undercroft, constructed in the 1180s, lies along the eastern boundary of the plot, beneath the great inn range. The structure is only partly subterranean, and this appears to have always been the case, allowing external access from the courtyard to the west.

MATERIALS
Stone.

PLAN
Rectangular plan, running north-south, with an entrance on the west wall. The structure abuts the adjacent building to the east.

EXTERIOR
Some small parts of the external wall above ground are visible to the west elevation, mostly obscured by later work and finishes. A short length of the external wall is visible within the cellar of the adjacent building, and is of random rubble stone.

INTERIOR
Six bays of the undercroft survive, the structure having been truncated and rebuilt at the northern end. The bays are roughly the same length apart from the fourth from the south, which is wider, indicating it was the entrance bay. The current entrance is via steps down from the adjacent courtyard within the rebuilt northern section. The long east and west walls and the original south wall are constructed in squared and coursed stone, divided into bays by pairs of engaged columns, which support the ribs of a segmental-arched vault. The columns along the western wall slope outwards as they rise, probably due to early movement in the wall. The moulded bases of some of the engaged columns survive, indicating that the floor level has not changed. The capitals are concave with squared caps. The east wall is otherwise unrelieved. The west wall has recesses within each bay; four bays show evidence of having splayed openings, for windows, sitting above the contemporary external ground level. A winding stone stair is set against the eastern wall of the sixth bay, rising to the ground floor of the great inn range, above. The south wall of the undercroft is original, and includes a C12 doorway under a deep stone lintel with a chamfered lower edge, giving access to a narrow intramural [within the depth of the wall] stair, of which the first four stone steps survive. The stair is likely to have given access to the upper floors of the C12 building. The original northern extent of the undercroft is not known, but it may have extended at least two bays further than the existing fabric. The current northern end of the undercroft is about two bays long, constructed from stone rubble, and includes a segmental arched recess in the northern wall. The structure is ceiled over with a large chamfered ceiling beam and joists, associated with the timber-framed building above. A window opening in the west wall is interpreted as part of the C15 work to construct the great inn range above.


THE GREAT INN RANGE (19 WESTGATE STREET)
The great inn range was constructed in the late 1470s, partly above the C12 undercroft.

MATERIALS
Some brick to the external walling of the main range. Timber frame with wattle and daub infill for the remainder, under slate roofs.

PLAN
The main range runs north-south, to the rear of 17 Westgate Street (not listed), and forms a reverse L-plan with a later cross wing at the south-western corner.

EXTERIOR
The building is of two storeys and six bays, with a cross wing of one bay attached at the south-western corner. The principal (west) elevation of the main range is largely rendered. The gabled cross wing has rendered infill panels between visible square framing, over a high stone plinth. The ground floor has a partial pent roof over the windows, which include a C20 bay window, an extended window bay with a canted window, and a broad bow window occupying the whole of one bay, both dating from the C19. Windows to the upper floor, all later in date, are inserted to respect openings in the frame.

INTERIOR
The C15 great inn range was built as a large, two-storey, six-bay structure, partially sitting over the truncated C12 undercroft; of this, five bays survive - the northernmost bay was demolished at some stage, in connection with the redevelopment of 17 Westgate Street to the north. The surviving frames of the building are numbered with carpenters’ marks, with the southernmost numbered VII, and the northernmost marked III. Part of what must be frame II is embedded in the north wall, which divides this range and the rear of 17 Westgate Street. Those open frames which were within rooms have curved up-braces between the wall posts and the cross beams. The ceilings of all the rooms on the ground floor are formed from squared joists running north-south along each bay. The principal, ground floor of the range as built in the C15 appears to have included a large, three-bay room at the northern end; a second, slightly smaller room of two bays to its south; and the southernmost bay, which appears to have had a service function, and gave access to the undercroft via its intramural stair. The northernmost room has been truncated at its northern end, and two bays survive. This room lies north of the truncated end of the undercroft beneath, and was set level with the external ground level, with the remainder of the range about 0.5m higher to take in the only partly subterranean undercroft. The northern room has a heavily-moulded cross beam and a similarly moulded post to the west, indicating that it was the highest status space, and evidence in the framing for an oriel window on the western side. The space was divided from the room to the south by a substantial partition, which survives within frame IV, with some later alteration to the eastern end. The partition includes three doorways, and might imply a corridor arrangement along the western side of the range. The western wall has been partly removed to allow the construction of a wide bow window in this room. The room to the south lies between frames IV and VI, with frame VI showing evidence of having formed part of a further partition. The timbers are simply decorated, with chamfers and runouts to the open frame V, indicating a lower status than the northern room. The west wall has been removed between the two northern frames to create a large bay window. The partition associated with frame VI is no longer extant, but inferred from the mortices in the chamfered cross beam of frame VII, leaving a further, narrow, one-bay room at the far south of the range, with a service function and now allowing access up steps into the C17 cross wing. These two rooms have a continuous flagstone floor, above the vaulting of the undercroft below. A surviving section of timber framing in the west wall shows that, as well as access to the narrow intramural stair to the undercroft, this room had a doorway to an external stair to the courtyard beyond, or a predecessor to the extant cross wing. There is also a trimmer beam in this bay which implies a staircase to the upper floor.
The first floor has a greater degree of survival of the external square framing. The main posts to east and west are jowled to support tie beams and wall plates. The open frames have up-braces to the tie beams, and the closed frames have longer down-braces forming structural elements of the partitions and tying them to the cross beams below. The space was divided into four rooms, with two two-bay rooms to the centre, and a single bay room to north and south, with their doorways again implying a western corridor. Only one of these partitions, in frame VI, survives. The roof structure is consistent over the whole range, the trusses each formed from paired principal rafters, tie beams and collars, with queen struts between the tie beams and collars. There is a single row of purlins to each slope, clasped between the collars and principals, and a single row of windbraces to each slope. Most of the common rafters also survive. All the first-floor rooms were originally open to the roof structure; the existing ceiling structure, of closely-set joists, probably dates from the C16. There is evidence across the building of a C16 plain red paint scheme, and joists in the southern bay retain some evidence of a possible alternate red and yellow paint scheme. The cross wing to the south-west has a single room on each of the ground and first floors, reached by two or three steps from the main range to account for the differences in floor level. These have deeply-chamfered ceiling beams with stepped and scrolled stops. The ground floor has been more altered, with a number of internal partitions, and a stair to the first floor which also gives access to the main range.


THE DETACHED KITCHEN RANGE (WEST RANGE)
The west range, which formed a detached kitchen range associated with the great inn range, was built in the late 1470s, to the rear of the slightly earlier street-front range (19A and 21 Westgate Street).

MATERIALS
Timber framed with some brick rebuilding, under a slate roof.

PLAN
The rectangular range runs north-south, and stands to the rear of 19A and 21 Westgate Street, which form the street front. At the north-east corner, set against the rear of 19A Westgate Street, is a small, projecting corner bay.

EXTERIOR
The short, visible portion of the east elevation of the west range is part rendered, part painted brick. The current access is via the southernmost bay, under an inserted concrete lintel. The fenestration is irregular, with casement windows of various dates. The deep roof is steeply pitched. A central stack, built in brick, emerges just west of the ridge. The north-east corner bay is gabled to the south, with a first-floor window opening with C20 metal-framed window. The bay is jettied out over the passageway from Westgate Street, from where the underside of the jetty beams are visible. The jetty spans only part of the current width of the passage. The north-east corner bay’s function is uncertain, but it might have had a role in controlling access to the courtyard, given its position alongside the main access from Westgate Street.

INTERIOR
The ground floor has been greatly altered, and there is no visible timber framing, either having been replaced or covered by later finishes. The entrance currently gives access into the former smoke bay, and the location of the original entrance is no longer evident. A modern stair within this bay rises to the first floor, which has a much higher degree of survival. The four cross-frames of the structure are numbered I – IIII on their northern faces, with I to the north. The northern and central bays each constituted a single room, with frame II showing evidence of having been closed below the tie beam, with a possible doorway on the eastern side. A massive stone-built chimney stack, possibly added in the C16, now stands at this point, forming a partial closure of the frame. The central room retains an axial ceiling beam with deep chamfers and stepped stops, probably dating from the C17, running between frames II and III. This room and that to the north have projecting timber brackets in their C19 rebuilt west wall, supporting the wall plate formerly shared as a party wall with the adjacent building at 23 Westgate Street. The northern room ends at frame I, which is now open to the rear wall of the street-front range. This includes a doorway with a C17 plank door from the first-floor room in 21 Westgate Street through to the first-floor of the west range, indicating that from this period, at least part of the street-front range was in use as part of The Fleece. To the south of these two principal rooms, the smoke bay, between frames III and IIII, would have been open from the ground floor to the roof. The northern face of frame IIII and the southern face of the closed truss above frame III show clear evidence of smoke blackening where their original surfaces remain, as do the exposed roof timbers. The west range’s C15 roof survives in large part: trusses are similar to those in both the great inn range and the street-front range: trusses formed from paired principal rafters with tie beams and queen struts rising to support the collar, and clasped purlins. The majority of the C15 common rafters also survive.

The small corner bay appears to have had a single, small room on each floor, the first-floor room is larger, as it is jettied out over the passageway. To the first floor, much of the walling has been replaced in brick, but there are surviving elements of the timber frame to the north, south and west sides, and the roof structure, with paired common rafters and large, curved wind braces, remains.


THE STREET-FRONT RANGE (19A AND 21 WESTGATE STREET)
This range of commercial units with accommodation above was constructed in the late 1470s, along Westgate Street. The surviving part formed two of the original five bays inferred from the evidence of the fabric.

MATERIALS
Timber framed, with brick refronting and faux timber framing; Roman tile front roof slope, slate to rear.

PLAN
The range is of two bays and a passage, running east-west along the Westgate Street frontage. At the east end it adjoins 17 Westgate Street (unlisted) which replaced the remainder of the C15 street front range in the C19.

EXTERIOR
The main elevation to Westgate Street is of two bays and three storeys, with additional cellarage under 21 Westgate Street. The left bay (19A Westgate Street), which forms the west side of the passageway to the rear of the plot occupied by the other buildings of the Fleece complex, has a ground floor shop front of the early-C20, with a recessed doorway to the left and panelled partition to the passage, plate-glass window with multi-paned transom glazing and a flat, fielded fascia. Above this, each floor has a three-light box window with multi-paned casements, and a wide C20 dormer set behind the cornice. The upper floors are clad in faux timber framing. The adjacent bay (21 Westgate Street) has a late-C19 shop front with central lobby, plate glass over low stall risers, pilasters and fluted cornice, and timber fascia. The upper floors are, like 19A, clad in faux timber framing. Each of the upper floors has a six-over-six sash window of the C19. The rear elevation is obscured by the west range.

INTERIOR
The ground-floor spaces, each now a single room, were divided to create rooms to front and rear, probably a shop space accessible from the street, and a more private room behind. The finishes to the ground floor of 19A Westgate Street date from the C20. 21 Westgate Street has stone flag floors and retains evidence of the trimmed-back jetties created when the building was refronted in brick. The upper floors were unpartitioned on each floor. The timber framed partition between the two units has brick infill, and a slender, inserted lateral stack between the northern rooms. Trimmer beams within the C15 horizontal divisions, which are formed from chamfered beams and square-section joists, show that each unit had a stair in its south-east corner to give access to the upper floors. A modern stair now stands against the rear wall of the range in 21 Westgate Street. The second floor was open to the roof, which takes the same form as that in the other buildings of the C15: paired principal rafters with tie beams and queen struts rising to support the collar, and clasped purlins. 21 Westgate Street retains part of a geometric painted scheme to the ground and first floors, tentatively dated to the C18, which includes a white-painted ceiling with a pattern of black triangles.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

472596

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Other
Lane, Rebecca - Historic England Research Report Series 33/2023 - The Fleece Hotel, 19, 19A and 21 Westgate Street, Gloucester: Historic Building Investigation (2023)
Bridge, Dr Martin and Tyers, Cathy – Historic England Research Report Series 36/2017 – The Fleece, Westgate Street, Gloucester (2017)
McDermott, Allyson – The Fleece Hotel, Gloucester – Investigation into the survival and use of wallpapers (draft report) (2024)
Lane, Rebecca and Lloyd, Abigail – Historic England Research Reports Series 31/2023 – The Undercrofts of Westgate Street, Gloucester: Historic Buildings Assessment (2023)

End of official list entry