St Catherine's Chapel and Almshouses

This well known chapel and almshouses were founded by Canon John Stevens in 1457 to house thirteen poor men. The almshouse and chapel were constructed on open ground, which had once been covered by Roman cobbles, out of Heavitree stone with dressing of ashlar or Beer stone. The entrance was from Catherine Street into a large room that contained a fireplace and bake-oven, in the wall bounding Egypt Lane. The building had a range of small cubicles which opened into a central courtyard. There was a well in the north wall of the courtyard. The wall facing the Cathedral butted up against the boundary of the Annuellers' College (now the range of buildings from Mols Coffee House to 5 Cathedral Close). Much of the site was buried beneath the Country House Inn which seems to have appeared in the late eighteenth century.

In 1894, Lady Hotham financed their restoration and they were handed over to the Church Army as a hostel. During the second war, servicemen were billeted in the buildings. The bombing of May 1942 destroyed the Almshouses and Chapel. Rather than clear the ruins, the City Council landscaped the ruins as a memorial to that dreadful night. The redevelopment of Princesshay has seen the area behind the ruins opened out and rear access created.

The glass panels are an artwork entitled Marking Time. The door shaped panels have pieces of medieval pottery, and glass through to a Coke can that have been excavated by archaeologists during the building work, sandwiched between the panes. Apparently, the type of ring pull on a Coke can will help future archaeologists to date 20th-century artefacts with some precision.

A few extracts from the almshouse records which can be seen engraved on the flag stones:

"Saturday the Seventeenth Day of May 1777.
They gave the Room in St Catherine's Alms House vacated by the Removal of The Widow Williams to the Workhouse to Martha Townsend Spinster."

"Saturday the Eighteenth Day of August, 1770
They ordered the Door of Priscilla Rice's Room in St Catherine's Alms House, to be repaired."

"Saturday the 11 August 1810
They ordered Philip Baker's Bill of ten shillings for sweeping chimnies at St Catherine's and St Ann's to be paid."

"Saturday the Twelfth Day of September 1772
They ordered That the Hatch belonging to the Dog Whipper's Room in St Catherines Alms House, be repaired."

"Saturday the Twenty Ninth Day of June, 1771
They gave to Mary Grant One Shilling & to Eighteen Poor People a Two Penny Loaf Each."

"Friday and Saturday 22nd and 23 December 1809
They ordered the chapter clerk to give notice (to) Mrs Holmes to quit the house, and when she has quitted they ordered the surveyor to pull down the house and to lay the scite of it into the street"

Source: Excavations in the War-damaged areas 1945-1947 By Aileen Fox