Vicars Close is a dead-end street in Wells, Somerset. It is, reportedly, Europe’s oldest residential street, with the original buildings still intact. John Julius Norwich called it “that rarest of survivals, a planned street of the mid-14th century”. It consists of numerous Grade I listed buildings, totalling 27 residences (originally 44), was built for Bishop Ralph of Shrewsbury, and has a chapel and library at the north end and a hall at the south end over an arched gate. It is connected at its southern end to Wells Cathedral by a walkway over Chain Gate.
The reason for Vicars’ Close original construction was that the Bishop wanted more control over the church’s priests. The chronicles report that the priests who serviced the cathedral lived all over town and their behavior, including tardiness for church services among other more insidious indiscretions, was becoming an embarrassment.
The close is about 140 metres (460 ft) long, and is paved. It has a very interesting architectural feature in that its width is tapered by 3 metres (9.8 ft) to make it look longer when viewed from the main entrance nearest the cathedral. When viewed from the other end, it looks shorter.
The Vicars’ Hall, at one end of the close, was completed in 1348, and included a communal dining room, administrative offices and the treasury. The houses on either side of the close were built in the 14th and early 15th centuries. Since then, alterations have been made, including a unifying roof, front gardens and raised chimneys. The final part of the construction of the close was completed during the 1420s, when the Vicars’ Chapel and Library were constructed. The southern face of the library features shields commemorating the bishops of the time. The interior is decorated with 19th-century “Gesso work”, by Heywood Sumner, and the building is now used by Wells Cathedral School.
The first parts of the Close to be constructed were a first-floor barrel-roofed common hall above a store room. A kitchen and bakehouse were completed in 1348. The chapel was built between 1424 and 1430 at the north end of the close. Interestingly, the chapel is eight degrees out of alignment with the rest of the close. This is because the northern wall of the chapel was built on top of the old wall enclosing the original estate limits, which became the outer limits of the city of Wells. To compensate for the misalignment of the chapel, the roof slopes to the west so that it appears level from the close.
The residences are built of stone. There were originally 22 houses on the east side and 20 on the west. They line each side of an elongated quadrangle which appears longer than it is because of false perspective achieved by building the houses at the upper northern end, nearest the chapel, 2.7 metres (8 ft 10 in) closer together than those at the lower southern end, closest to the Vicars’ Hall.
In the fifteenth century, Bishop Thomas Beckington left much of his estate to the Vicars’ Close, enabling repairs to be carried out. The gardens in front of the houses were not part of the original scheme, with the garden walls being added as part of this development. The walls are on average 4 metres (13 ft) from the front of the houses. Bishop Beckington unified the appearance of the terraces, including the installation of a single arch-braced and wind-braced-trussed sloping roof around 1466. The chimney shafts were renewed and raised, possibly because of the introduction of coal as the fuel, rather than wood. Each stack incorporates two heraldic shields, and the upper sections of the stacks are octagonal.
Following the 16th-century Reformation, when clerical marriage was permitted, larger households would have been required and as a result some of the houses were altered and combined into larger buildings by knocking through walls. Others had extensions built to the rear. Water supply was originally from two wells, one at each end of the close. By 1468 lead pipes had been installed to bring water into the houses, although the wells continued to function until the 19th century. Number 22 is the house which still has most of its original medieval structure.
In 2024 the cathedral announced plans, and fundraising, for a project to restore the Close and to open some of its buildings to the public. £4.4m towards the envisaged £7m total cost of the restoration was secured from the National Heritage Lottery Fund. Work is intended to be completed by 2027.
The original article I read on this contained amazing details of the various constructions that were carried out over the course of 700 years. I find it fascinating that a construction project originally designed to curtail the excesses of local priests should (1) still be standing, and (2) we still have the details of its over 700 years of history.
