The Fleece Hotel, Westgate Street,

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

is a

timber framed Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

building dating from the 15th century, which incorporated a 12th-century stone

undercroft An undercroft is traditionally a cellar or storage room, often brick-lined and vaulted, and used for storage in buildings since medieval times. In modern usage, an undercroft is generally a ground (street-level) area which is relatively open ...

. The building is part

grade I 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 ...

and part grade II listed with

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked w ...

History

left, The 12th century undercroft of the Hotel The Fleece Hotel was first opened in 1497 as one of the three major inns of Gloucester to house pilgrims visiting the tomb of

Edward II of England Edward II (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327), also called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1307 until he was deposed in January 1327. The fourth son of Edward I, Edward became the heir apparent to t ...

. The 12th century undercroft, known as the "Monk's Retreat" was originally part of a merchant's house, and was incorporated into the structure. By 1455, it was a property owned by

Gloucester Abbey Gloucester Abbey was a Benedictine abbey in the city of Gloucester, England. Since 1541 it has been Gloucester Cathedral. History Early period A Christian place of worship had stood on the abbey site since Anglo-Saxon times. Around 681, with ...

, and was developed into an inn by the Abbey during the 16th century. It was first recorded as the Golden Fleece Inn in 1673. The building was made part Grade I listed on 24 January 1952, with other parts of the building made Grade II listed on 15 December 1998. After the building was left empty for around nine years, the hotel was purchased by Gloucester City Council in 2011. Later that year, the council announced a £350,000 restoration scheme, with the leader of the city council, Paul James, saying "We want to restore it to bring it back into use and we want to do that as quickly as possible." They subsequently undertook waterproofing work in both the salt loft and the kitchen block, with further repair works and partial demolition afterwards. Two years later, plans were revealed for the building to be run as a backpacker's hostel by the

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams (philanthropist), Georg ...

, and with the undercroft operated as a cafe/bar. On 20 July 2017, the building suffered an arson attack which caused extensive damage, particularly to the roof, which made it unusable until repair work could be carried out. On 17 September 2019, Gloucester City Council announced that the site would be redeveloped into a boutique hotel in partnership with Dowdeswell Estates

References

External links

{{Buildings and structures in Gloucester Grade I listed buildings in Gloucestershire Grade II listed buildings in Gloucestershire Westgate, Gloucester Former pubs in England Defunct hotels in England Pubs in Gloucester