Old Palace Croydon: western range

Summary

Western range of high-status private apartments, lodgings and service rooms below, built around 1493-1498 under Archbishop Morton to link the principal apartments and chapel at the Old Palace at Croydon. The range was altered after 1630, principally with the reconfiguration of rooms to the upper floor to give access to Archbishop Laud’s raised pew in the chapel.

Reasons for Designation

The western range of the Old Palace at Croydon is listed at Grade I for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as an important example of high-status apartments of the late C15, with extensive survival of elaborate joinery and fittings, constituting the most complete and uniform phase of building undertaken at the Old Palace;
* as a major element of the architectural evolution of the Old Palace and its plan around two courtyards, demonstrating the enlargement and aggrandisement of the complex into the 1490s.

Historic interest:

* as a key part of an important and extensive archiepiscopal manor with standing elements dating back to the C12. The Old Palace is the best-surviving example of a medieval palace of the Archbishops of Canterbury, built on the route between Lambeth and Canterbury to serve as a residence suitable for the Archbishop’s retinue and frequent royal visitations;
* for its strong association with successive Archbishops of Canterbury, to whom distinct campaigns of building work are attributed.

Group value:

* with the other seven Grade I-listed buildings forming the Old Palace complex and the adjacent Grade I-listed Croydon Minster (Church of St John the Baptist).

History

The Old Palace at Croydon formed one of a chain of great houses to be occupied by archbishops and their retinues when travelling between Canterbury and Lambeth. The archiepiscopal manors were established to allow the journey to be divided into easy stages of around 20 miles, with the route proceeding via Charing, Maidstone, Otford, and (after 1450) Knole. The Old Palace at Croydon was the final staging post on this route towards London and it became one of the largest and most important sites of the archiepiscopal estate. The palace site is likely to date back to the 8th century or early 9th century, with a ‘monasterium’ recorded from 809, at which time a Royal Council was assembled at Croydon. By 880, the site certainly constituted part of the endowment of the Archbishop of Canterbury, becoming an important part of the estate in the late-Saxon period. The palace came to be favoured by archbishops as a summer residence from the C13, by which time it had an early hall, private chambers, kitchens and surrounding grounds. With the adjacent church and village, the area became known as Old Croydon, distinct from New Croydon, which developed to the east as a commercial centre along a main route to London, receiving a market charter in 1276.

The Old Palace at Croydon is an extraordinarily complex site of multiple phases; indeed, almost every generation since the C12 has adapted the palace buildings to some degree to meet their evolving demands. A series of timber buildings centred on a hall built from the 9th century onwards appear to have preceded the stone and brick structures. The evidence indicates that rebuilding in masonry began with the private chambers during the C12, towards the western edge of the palace site, with subsequent development suggesting that that the principal early buildings - the private chamber, hall and kitchens - were strung together from west to east. The later C14 saw a surge in building at the archbishops’ estates, recorded in some cases as repairing damage following social and political unrest across the country culminating in the Peasant’s Revolt of 1381, when Archbishop Sudbury was seized and beheaded in London and the archepiscopal property was attacked. There is no specific record of an attack on the Old Palace at Croydon, though the heightened building activity from this time may have been spurred by these events.

The main standing elements of the Old Palace were built from the mid-C14 to the late C15, by which time the manor was highly regarded, acquiring high-status accommodation suitable for royal visitations. The scheme appears to have begun with an early iteration of the great chamber above its undercroft in the second quarter of the C14 for Archbishop Stratford (1333-1348), and with the hall, probably begun under Archbishop Courtenay (1381-1396) and completed by Archbishop Stafford (1443-1452), whose throne partially survives. The later C14 and early C15 saw a major phase of building by Archbishop Arundel (1396-1397 and then 1399-1414), who completed the great chamber in its present form, probably extending accommodation to the south-west, possibly the site of an earlier private chapel or oratory. The lower section of what was likely at that date to be a chapel (since the existing chapel was built above it) also dates from the later C14. The upper part was then rebuilt in the mid-C15 following its partial collapse. In around 1500, Archbishop Morton (1486-1500) extended the chapel and private chambers westwards, with a west range built to link them. The east range closing the south court appears to have been built at around the same time.

Despite the closure of many religious houses under Henry VIII, the Old Palace at Croydon was retained while other archiepiscopal estates were sold or reduced, and perhaps in response to this loss Archbishop Cranmer added a long gallery, built in 1538-1539, to complete the plan that fundamentally exists today, with enclosed north and south courts. The manor was first described as a ‘palatium’, or palace, by John Whitgift (1583-1604) in the later C16, although after the Reformation its popularity waned. Henry VIII reputedly refused to stay at Croydon claiming it to be bad for his health on account of its low-lying position and waterlogged condition at this stage. Both church and palace were built on an island site and until the early C19 the palace site was surrounded by water, with fishponds, ornamental ponds and waterways.

In the C17, Archbishop Laud (1633-1645) committed to remodelling the archiepiscopal chapels in line with his religious tenets, and at the Old Palace the raised pew, stalls and altar rails are attributed to him. During the Commonwealth (1649-1660), Parliament seized the site and sold it to Sir William Brereton. However, the Old Palace was reinstated as archiepiscopal property in 1660, perhaps a reflection of its importance, and remained so until the later C18. On the restoration of the monarchy, Archbishop Juxon (1660-1663) set about restoring the buildings, particularly the chapel which was significantly reconfigured during this time and likely continued by his immediate successor, Archbishop Sheldon (1663-1677).

Although some improvements were made by Archbishop Wake (1715-1737), who spent frequent summers at the Palace, and by Archbishop Herring (1747-1757), who spent £6000 on the buildings and gardens, by the later C18 the Old Palace was less popular as a residence and had fallen into a poor state of repair. In 1780 it was sold to Abraham Pitches and then subsequently to Sam Starey, becoming a calico printing and bleaching factory. The site was industrialised, land was sold, buildings were adapted, subdivided and used for multiple purposes, including as lodgings. The wider complex of the palace was significantly truncated and all of the northern ancillary buildings of the outer court were lost during this period. The northern stables and the gatehouse were largely demolished in 1806, followed by the western lodgings in 1808 as part of the expansion of the churchyard (marked by the present brick boundary wall from this date). The service range which had been connected to the hall was pulled down in 1810, which ultimately contributed to the collapse of the east wall of the Great Hall in 1830. The final remaining vestige of the outer court was the eastern range of lodgings running along what is now Old Palace Road, which remained in use for most of this period but was finally demolished in 1880.

In order to save the Old Palace from demolition in 1887, the site was bought by the Duke of Newcastle, a follower of the Oxford Movement, who gave it to the Anglican Sisters of Mercy to secure its future for religious purposes. The Sisters established a small school in 1889 that was recognised as a higher-grade elementary school in 1892 and in 1904 as a secondary school. From the outset, the Sisters embarked on a programme to restore the neglected buildings, employing the architect Sir Banister Fletcher in 1905 to work on the chapel restoration. After the Second World War it became a Direct Grant Grammar School and new school buildings were added in phases to the south-west of the site. In 1974 it became an independent school, passing in 1994 to the Whitgift Foundation. In September 2023, the Whitgift Foundation announced the decision to close the school permanently by August 2025.

HISTORY OF THE WESTERN RANGE
The western range was built under Archbishop Morton (1486-1500) to provide additional private apartments linking the guard chamber and the northern chapel. The range was built along the churchyard boundary, requiring the demolition of the late-C12 inner chamber, which had adjoined the mid-C14 guard chamber. The building of the north end of the range necessitated the demolition of the west end of the chapel to add an additional bay and northern stair block (covered separately in the entry for the chapel). The range remains as the most coherent and uniform building campaign at Croydon, all built in large and dark brick laid in English bond with Reigate stone dressings, with elaborate moulded ceiling joists to the principal rooms. The principal apartments were arranged to align with the eastern guard chamber, which would have been used as such during royal visits, with the state apartments occupying the first-floor rooms immediately to the west and to the south (the latter forming part of the west range of the south court). Further lodgings extended in the narrow, tapering range to the north, possibly originally arranged as a stacked suite of apartments at the northern end. The whole range had service areas to the lower level, integrated with the undercroft beneath the guard chamber.

The work for Morton was principally undertaken to accommodate visits by Henry VII, with the west range forming one element of extensive new building activity at this time. This transformed the Old Palace into a recognisably early modern great house, with three high-status apartments suitable for accommodating royal visits and providing lodgings for their retinue. John Morton was personally favoured by Henry VII, appointed Chancellor of England following his victory at Bosworth in 1485 and in the following year translated by the pope, at the king's request, to the see of Canterbury. In 1493, a royal licence was granted for building campaigns across the archiepiscopal manors in Kent, Surrey and Sussex. It is probable that his works at Croydon were essentially complete by the time he entertained Henry VII in October 1498 and again in July 1500, before his death in September of that year. Dendrochronology on the west range first floor and roof timbers and the north-east range roof confirm that these parts of the range are contemporary, giving felling dates within the bracket 1491-1511, therefore aligning with the documentary evidence to indicate that the work belongs to around 1493-1498.

Changes were made to the upper floor of the range under Archbishop Laud (1633-1640) to accommodate his raised pew. This required the reconfiguration of the northern rooms, which had their floor levels altered to meet that of the pew and new openings inserted, forming what appears to have been a processional sequence of rooms from the southern apartment to chapel at the north. Further alterations were made in the later C17, under Juxon and then probably continued by Sheldon. New routes of circulation were created at this stage, with a doorway formed to link the high-status apartment on the first floor with the small compartment and stairs to the north. Possibly connected to this, stairs in the southern projection, which appear to have originally connected the upper floors were replaced with a long, straight flight, since lost but shown in the 1880 survey drawings of the Palace. The first-floor apartment room had a corridor removed and the united room was remodelled with later C17 panelling fitted. At second-floor level, a window of probable C17 date was inserted in the north-west corner; the lack of relation this bears to the rest of the room (including the adjacent window) suggests that this space was at the time divided from the main room, probably forming an anteroom to this chamber.

After the 1887 acquisition and school conversion the southern end of the range was converted to serve as an extension to the library, formed from the adjacent guard chamber, with classrooms and office space created in the apartment rooms above. The southern room of the second floor later become an IT suite, with a spiral stair added to connect it with the main library in the late C20.

Details

Western range of high-status private apartments, lodgings and service rooms below, built around 1493-1498 under Archbishop Morton to link the principal apartments and chapel at the Croydon archiepiscopal palace. The range was altered after 1630, principally with the reconfiguration of rooms to the upper floor to give access to Archbishop Laud’s raised pew in the chapel.

MATERIALS: the entire range is built of uniform red-brown brick in English bond enriched with darker vitrified brick to the diaper work. Principal rooms are at first floor and above, identified by larger Reigate stone dressed openings, while smaller windows serving the more utilitarian ground floor rooms have brick dressings.

PLAN: the range has a sequence of spaces running south-north, with the west elevation skewed to the east-west alignment of the principal buildings, providing a hierarchical route from the private apartments to the chapel. From north to south these house anterooms to the chapel, a C17 stair connecting the first and second floors; the western chamber of the private apartments with a room above, and all over a contemporary undercroft. The northern rooms were altered internally with floor levels adjusted to provide access to the C17 raised pew in the adjacent western bay of the chapel (which was added along with the northern stairs as part of the 1490s work, but is separately listed under the chapel).

EXTERIOR: the west elevation is a continuous stretch of walling of the 1490s in a deep red-brown brick, mostly in English bond, enriched with diaper work, including cross motifs at the apex of the hall gable. To the south of the chapel, a lower pitched-roof range of two storeys above an undercroft has three irregular windows on each main floor, all in rectangular moulded surrounds with cusped spandrels except where the window opening is blocked at the north end of the upper floor. To the lower level there is a wide blocked opening beneath an arch in two courses of brick, but the brick blocking here is matched to the rest of the wall.

The southern gabled section forms the west wall of the enlarged private chambers. At first-floor level is a window in a renewed stone surround set beneath a shallow arched head. The upper level has an inserted two-light casement beneath a tile lintel, and a two-light original window in a moulded stone surround, set-off slightly to the north. As with the chapel, the gable has a shallow brick soldier course.

The east elevation overlooks the north court and at ground-floor level this and the adjoining gabled wing have single lights in chamfered brick reveals. High up at second floor level is a pair of single lights in stone surrounds with moulded spandrels. To the north, the three-storey gabled wing projects into the court. At ground-floor level in its southern face is an arched headed doorway in a stone surround, and on the east elevation a single light in a chamfered brick reveal. At first-floor level is a two-light mullion window in a square-headed moulded stone surround, with moulded spandrels above four-centre arched lights. To the right of it and in the floor above are single lights in similar but eroded stone surrounds. To the left is an inserted (or altered) opening with a timber mullion and transom window with rectangular leaded panes beneath a tile lintel. The gable has a depressed arched opening with chamfered brick reveals, blocked in later red brick.

The south elevation, now enclosed within the 1987 stair block*, is clad at ground-floor level. Above, the brickwork is exposed, with two-light casements at first and second-floor level. The adjacent projecting bay has a gabletted dormer with a three-light casement serving the upper chamber.

To the north elevation of the southern bay of the range, where the building meets the guard chamber, the elevation is built with red-brown brick in English bond and a darker (later) brick in Flemish bond, with a section in red brick to the west end. A distinct full-height break in the fabric between the central and eastern bays is marked by stone quoins where it meets the earlier guard chamber range. There is a small mullion and transom window beneath a flat brick arch, and above it a three-light casement set high under the eaves, both with similar leaded lights.

INTERIOR: the principal private chamber, to the first floor of the southern bay of the range, is lined in full-height panelling in three tiers of fielded panels that extend to the window reveals (since painted over). The north wall breaks forward slightly at the chimney breast, where stone and flint cheeks of the opening are visible. The fireplace is original, although heavily eroded. The ceiling, of five bays, has a moulded cornice and deep, closely-spaced moulded ribs aligned between deep moulded transverse beams. The room appears to have been separated from the adjacent guard chamber by a closet (the difference in the spaces reflected in the layout of the moulded ceiling), which seemingly could be by-passed on the south, to give access to the other principal apartment (within the west range of the south court).

The upper room to the south end is an impressive chamber reached by a short flight of stairs from the C17 stairwell. At the eastern end, sections of side walls and window embrasures are lined in small-framed panelling. The arch-braced roof, of three bays, has a cambered tie beam at the eastern end, abutting the roof of the guard chamber. Principal rafters with arched braces support slightly cranked collars, with struts from presumably embedded wall posts; the roof has two tiers of butt purlins. The gallery at the eastern end overlooking the guard chamber has a later-inserted balustrade in C17 style, but a later-C20 insertion. The southern projection in the room, much altered in the levels below, probably housed a stair bay which originally connected the two upper floors. In common with the first floor, a smaller inner room or closet with a moulded ceiling seems to have been associated with this principal room.

The stairwell in the narrow central bay of the range contains a later C17 dog-leg stair from first to second floors, with square newels, some with sunk panels, and most with ball finials. The upper balustrade has column balusters and a flat-moulded rail. The flight of stairs has inverted vase balusters (similar to the chapel altar rail) and a deeper roll-moulded rail. A similar half flight with renewed steps connects the stairwell to the southern room on the second floor. The walls of the stairwell are fully lined in panelling, with shallow moulded rails and muntins, likely to be contemporary with the other later-C17 work, but with moulded cornices and ceilings consistent with the original 1490s build. A later partition cuts across the arrangement of the stairwell, creating a lobby where the moulded ceiling extends into the north room on the first floor. This room is also fully-lined in later C17 panelling, now painted, with small-framed panelling on the north wall and larger framing on the south partition wall. The roof form of the north-south range (between the two gables) consists of rafter couples rising from substantial wall plates; there are no other members and the moulded ceilings are set below wall plate level.

The north room of the upper floor is lined in vertical boarding, a C17 partition wall and a doorway relating to the construction of the raised pew. The floor level between this room and that below was altered to connect with Laud's pew. To both this room and the one beneath there are single-light windows with simple, hollow chamfered architraves to the north, with two-light windows with moulded mullions and architraves to the south, both sets dating to the 1490s. The small windows to the north end of the east wall suggest a connecting spiral stair between the two upper levels, which would have been removed as part of the alterations made to connect this range with Laud’s raised pew. This room and the one below both have primary fireplaces in their south wall, corbelled out externally, but with the flues rising through the north-west corner; indicating the possibility of additional fireplaces and thus that the spaces may have previously been sub-divided and that the two northern rooms might have formed a separate ‘vertical’ apartment associated with the chapel.

The ground floor of the west range, at undercroft level, has exposed ceiling beams and joists in oak and pine, some reused, some chamfered, those of oak with felling dates of 1486-1511. The exposed brick is a consistent warm red colour laid in English bond as with the exterior. This includes the rear arches and embrasures of blocked single-light window openings with depressed arched heads. In the north-west corner is segmental arched, angled hearth opening (shared with the western bay beneath the chapel). This suggests some potential for fireplaces here and residential use from the 1490s at undercroft level, but the high arches may alternatively have been supporting hearths on the levels above.

To the south end, the 1987 stair block* connecting to the teaching range is of steel and glass construction; this adjoins the historic western range but is not structurally integrated with it.

* Under the powers of exclusion in s1 (5A) (b) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, this part of the building has been specifically excluded from the listing.

Sources

Books and journals
Cherry, B, Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: London 2: South (1983), pp212-214
Some Account of the Town, Church and Archiepiscopal Palace of Croydon in Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica, ,Vol. XII, (1783), pp30-67, Appendix 1 (Extracts from the Archiepiscopal Registers at Lambeth), pp1-26
Pugin, A, Examples of Gothic Architecture Volume 1 (1838), pp26-30, Plates 38-42
Emery, A, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales 1300-1500, Volume 3: Southern England (2006), pp329-333

Websites
'Croydon: Introduction and Croydon Palace', in Malden, HE (ed), A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 4 (1912), accessed 24 March 2025 from https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/surrey/vol4/pp205-217

Other
Lea, R, Observations at the Archbishop’s Palace, Croydon, 1987 to 1996 (English Heritage, 2004)
Drury McPherson Partnership, Croydon Archiepiscopal Palace, The Evolution of the Buildings (July 2020)
Drury McPherson Partnership, Old Palace Croydon, The Chapel, Heritage Impact Assessment (February 2020)
Hilton, K, The Old Palace School, Centenary History 1889-1989 (1989)
The Heritage Advisory, Old Palace School, Croydon, Conservation Management Plan (January 2016)
Arnold, A, Howard R, The Archiepiscopal Palace (The ‘Old Palace’) John Whitgift School, Croydon, London, Tree-Ring Analysis of Timbers (February 2020)
Drawings of The Archepiscopal Palace, Croydon c1880 (Society of Antiquaries, B.P. Surrey, no. 53)
Oswald, A, 'The Old Palace, Croydon, Surrey: A Former Residence of the Archbishops of Canterbury', Country Life, (April 1965), pp806-810, 876-880

End of official list entry