Norwich Alms Houses

The Hospital of St Giles or Great Hospital:

Alms houses 00 [ Great Hospital Map ]

Alms houses 01 [ Great Hospital Church tower, Porch, Inscription, Eagle Ward ]

Alms houses 02 [ Great Hospital Chaplain’s house, Offices, Master’s House, former Refectory ]

Alms houses 03 [ Great Hospital Kitchens, Birkbeck hall (1901, on site of brewhouse), Alms houses (19th century), Alms houses (1937, architect S.J.Wearing A.R.I.B.A.), Prior Court (1980), Swan pit ]

The Hospital of St Giles, commonly known as the Great Hospital, was founded by Walter de Suffield bishop of Norwich in 1249. He pulled down the parish church of St Helens on the south side of Holme Street (now Bishopgate) and provided accommodation for the parishioners in his new buildings on the north side of the street. The Hospital establishment consisted of a Master, four chaplains, a deacon, sub-deacon and four sisters (over fifty years old) to minister to the inmates, and four lay brothers. Its function was to maintain poor and decrepit chaplains of the diocese of Norwich, and also to provide thirteen poor people and seven poor scholars with a meal a day. In 1310 the chaplains were increased to eight and were to wear the habit of secular canons. The Hospital was dissolved by Henry VIII, but at the petition of Norwich citizens it was restored to the city by Edward VI. It is now administered by Trustees, and with its additional buildings it houses nearly 200 old people of both sexes.

The buildings are of great interest and represent in the main a rebuilding of the Hospital in the 14th and 15th centuries. It is probable that Suffield’s parish church was south of and parallel to the Hospital chapel, both being east of the infirmary hall. The present arrangement (somewhat obscured by 16th century alterations) shows an aisled church of three bays, intervening between the infirmary hall and the large chancel, the latter being of unusual size to accommodate the chaplains who were functioning as chantry priests. The aisle arcades bear the arms of Prior Nolet (1453-71) Bishop Goldwell (1472-99) and Sir James Hobart, one of Bishop Goldwell’s executors (d. 1507), and also the sun in splendour, the badge of Edward IV. The chancel had been built previously by Bishop Spencer (1370-1406) and was completed in 1385, the year that Richard II and his queen, Anne of Bohemia, visited Norwich. Its richly panelled roof, with 253 painted eagles, is supposed to commemorate the queen. The long vaulted porch is probably part of an earlier structure and the elaborately vaulted Lady Chapel appears always to have contained the parochial altar. The infirmary hall is an extension of four bays west of the church, built in plainer style, and at its south-west corner is a large tower, adjoining the destroyed south aisle. The cost of the tower was defrayed by a bequest of John de Derlington, Chancellor, who was Master of the Hospital, 1372-5. To the north is a cloister, with a dining hall on the west, where the daily meals provided by the founder were no doubt served, and lodgings for the master and the chaplains on the north. The apartments to the east, one of which is said to have been the Chapter House, have disappeared, but the doorways remain. When the hospital was reconstituted under Edward VI, both the infirmary and the Chancel were separated by walls from the Church, and floors were inserted to provide two storeys in each. These are fitted with cubicles the one for men and the other for women. The architectural detail is of considerable interest and the church has good fittings.

Doughty’s Hospital, St Swithin’s Alms Houses, Cooke’s Hospital, and Pye’s Alms Houses (former):

Alms houses 04 [ Doughty’s hospital Calvert Street (founded by William Doughty under the terms of his Will dated 1687 - the present buildings date from 1869), St Swithin’s alms houses Plough Yard St Benedict’s Street (founded 1691 by bequest from Edward Temple - rebuilt here in 1903), Cooke’s hospital St Martin’s Lane (originally built by Robert and Thomas Cooke at Rose Lane in 1692 - transferred here 1892), Pye’s alms houses (former) 68-78 West Pottergate (founded in St Gregory’s in 1614 - transferred here in 1827) ]

West Pottergate: Pye’s Alms Houses

The Elms, Stuart Court, Ryrie Court, and Melbourne Cottages:

Alms houses 05 [ The Elms (Rowntree Mackintosh alms houses - Unthank Road), Stuart Court Recorder Road (a commemorative tablet records that “these housen” were built by members of the Colman family in memory of James Stuart - 1915), Ryrie Court (sheltered housing Unthank Road), Melbourne cottages Union Street (built 1949-50 by Norwich City Council to house elderly people - originally for those whose homes were destroyed during air raids of the Second World War) ]

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