The Undercroft at 72/74 High Street in

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The nam ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

is a medieval

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

or storage room. It has been described as one of the finest examples of its type in the country.The Undercroft, Guildford
–

Guildford Borough Council Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The nam ...

websiteHelen Chapman-Davies
''Guildford's Hidden History''
Amberley Publishing (2013) – Google Books Since 1976 it has been a

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

and

Scheduled Monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage, visu ...

on the List of

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 Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

.Medieval undercroft at 72/74 High Street, Guildford
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Database

Generally, a medieval

was built with at least three vaulted bays depending on the wealth or storage needs of the owner. Built of stone and therefore fireproof, an undercroft would have been used for storing foodstuffs or liquids such as barrels of wine or items of value. When built under a house an undercroft and, more importantly its contents, could be watched at all times. While undercrofts are on occasion called 'cellars' they were not exclusively built completely below ground level; the fact of being built into the ground often resulted in their being preserved when the building above was no longer used or when another building was erected in its place. There are the remains of about another half a dozen medieval

s in Guildford. Being constructed of

masonry Masonry is the craft of building a structure with brick, stone, or similar material, including mortar plastering which are often laid in, bound, and pasted together by mortar (masonry), mortar. The term ''masonry'' can also refer to the buildin ...

they were costly to build and only could have been afforded by rich merchants which reveals that Guildford was a wealthy town during the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

The Undercroft at Guildford is late 13th-century in date and is believed to have belonged to the house of a merchant above it who dealt in wine or expensive cloths or silk. The Undercroft is three bays in length and measures about 30 feet long by 19 feet wide and 9 feet high (about 10 m by 6 m and 3 m high) and has a

rib vault A rib vault or ribbed vault is an architectural feature for covering a wide space, such as a church nave, composed of a framework of crossed or diagonal arched ribs. Variations were used in Roman architecture, Byzantine architecture, Islamic a ...

ed ceiling supported by two round central columns or piers. The

corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal keyed into and projecting from a wall to carry a wikt:superincumbent, bearing weight, a type of bracket (architecture), bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in t ...

s on the walls are carved with grotesque faces and support the base of the arches. That near the steps shows the head of a woman wearing a

wimple A wimple is a medieval form of female headcovering, formed of a large piece of cloth worn draped around the neck and chin, covering the top of the head; it was usually made from white linen or silk. Its use developed in early medieval Europe ...

which was fashionable women's headwear in the late 13th century. The Undercroft's ceiling is actually above street level which gives ample room for the doorway and the steps leading down from the High Street outside, such access suggesting the Undercroft was originally built as a shop. The doorway being positioned on the downhill side provided maximum headroom while on the room's uphill side a low window was located which provided some daylight. By the far corner in the uphill wall a narrow doorway can be found which led to a spiral staircase to the house above which supports the theory that the Undercroft was originally built as a shop. Of this

timber framed Timber framing () 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 pegs. If the struc ...

structure above nothing now remains. The extant three-storey red brick building above the Undercroft dates to 1803. The Undercroft included a doorway in the south wall which was blocked and replaced sometime in the 19th century. From the 14th century the Undercroft was largely used for storage, but for much of the 20th century it stood empty until 1989 when the blocked street entrance was reopened and the room renovated for use as an Information Centre for visitors to Guildford. The Information Centre has recently been relocated. The Undercroft is managed by the nearby

Guildford Museum Guildford Museum is the main museum in the town of Guildford, Surrey, England. The museum is on Quarry Street, a narrow road lined by pre-1900 cottages running just off the pedestrianised High Street. This main site of the museum forms the gate ...

and is open on Wednesdays from May to September – 2pm to 4pm October to April and Saturdays from May to September – 12pm to 4pm. Admission is free. There are steps from the street level and there is no disabled access.

Gallery

File:Vault Undercroft Guildford.jpg, A column supporting the rib vault ceiling File:Undercroft Guildford Corel in Wimple.jpg, Corbel dating to the late 1200s of a woman wearing a wimple File:Interior Undercroft Guildford 2019.jpg, Interior of the Undercroft File:Interior Undercroft Guildford 2019 (2).jpg, Interior of the Undercroft File:Interior Undercroft Guildford 2019 (3).jpg, Interior of the Undercroft File:Undercroft Guildford doorway 2019.jpg, Remains of doorway File:Corbel Undercroft Guildford 2019.jpg, Corbel of a man File:Model Undercroft Guildford 2019.jpg, Model showing the Undercroft with the original timber-frame house above

References

External links

The Undercroft, Guildford – Visit Surrey websiteThe Undercroft, Guildford – Visit South East England
{{DEFAULTSORT:The Undercroft, Guildford Buildings and structures in Guildford Museums in Surrey Local museums in Surrey History of Surrey Individual rooms 13th-century establishments in England Grade II* listed buildings in Surrey