Edes House is mansion in

Chichester Chichester () is a cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. It is the only ci ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ar ...

. The building, which was the headquarters of

West Sussex County Council West Sussex County Council (WSCC) is the authority that governs the non-metropolitan county of West Sussex. The county also contains seven district and borough councils, and 158 town, parish and neighbourhood councils. The county council has 7 ...

from 1916 to 1936, is a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

The building was built for John Edes, a

maltster Malting is the process of steeping, germinating and drying grain to convert it into malt. The malt is mainly used for brewing or whisky making, but can also be used to make malt vinegar or malt extract. Various grains are used for malting, most ...

, and his wife, Hannah, and completed in 1696. It was originally thought to have been designed by

Sir Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches ...

but this theory has more recently been discounted as unlikely. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with nine bays facing West Street with the last two bays at each end slightly projected forwards; the central bay, which was faced with

Portland stone Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries are cut in beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building sto ...

, featured a doorway on the ground floor with broken curved pediment above; there was a

casement window A casement window is a window that is attached to its frame by one or more hinges at the side. They are used singly or in pairs within a common frame, in which case they are hinged on the outside. Casement windows are often held open using a cas ...

on the first floor flanked by narrow

Ionic order The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite or ...

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

s and a pediment above. The house passed down the Edes family line to their son, Henry, and granddaughter, Mary. It was then acquired by Peckham Williams,

Sheriff of Sussex The office of Sheriff of Sussex was established before the Norman Conquest. The Office of sheriff remained first in precedence in the counties until the reign of Edward VII when an Order in Council in 1908 gave the Lord-Lieutenant the prime office ...

in the mid-18th century. It then passed down the Williams family line, being inherited by a senior physician at Chichester Infirmary, Dr Joseph McCarogher, in 1848. It was then acquired by a local man, William Duke, in 1860. During the 19th century it was known as Westgate House, but it was referred to as West Street House from 1905 and as Wren's House from 1911. After being owned by the artist, Walter Ernest Tower, in the early 20th century, it was acquired by

for use as a meeting place and administrative centre in 1916. After the County Council moved to County Hall in 1936, it became the headquarters of the County Library and also the County Record Office. In 1967 the name of the house was simplified to Wren House and after the County Record Office moved to new facilities in Orchard Street in 1989, it became a venue for weddings and other ceremonies. The name was changed again in 1993, this time to Edes House, after a historical analysis by the county archivist, Francis Steer, discounted the theory that Wren had designed the building, on the basis that he was wholly employed designing

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grad ...

at the time. In October 2018, the

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...

and

Duchess of Sussex Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (; born Rachel Meghan Markle; August 4, 1981) is an American member of the British royal family and former actress. She is the wife of Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, the younger son of King Charles III. Meghan was ...

visited the building where they viewed an original copy of the

United States Declaration of Independence The United States Declaration of Independence, formally The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen States of America, is the pronouncement and founding document adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at Pennsylvania State House ...

, which had been uncovered in the County Archives. Works of art in the building include a series of watercolour paintings by the local artist, George Herbert Catt (1869-1920), who lived at the Depot House in Chichester.Mosley, Charles, editor. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003.

History

References

Further reading