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LINCOLN HIGH STREET (East side) St Mary's Guildhall SK97SE 1941-1/2/179 Listed on 08/10/53 Grade I Formerly known as: John O'Gaunt's Stables HIGH STREET. Major domestic building, possibly the town house of Henry II, c1157, incorporating in its foundations part of the C3 Foss Way. Used as a guildhall 1251-1547, remodelled early C17 as a school and used in part as maltings, C15 to 1981. South range 1895. Excavated 1981-1986 and restored 1984-86. Now the offices of the Lincoln Civic Trust and a church hall. Dressed stone with ashlar dressings and pantile roofs. Single storey and 2 storeys. C-plan. EXTERIOR: west range, 5 bays, has shallow buttresses, chamfered plinth and band with bird and beast masks to the northern part. Near-central moulded carriageway arch with segmental pointed inner arch, flanked by single buttresses. Above it, 2 reset masks. To left, a single light, and to right, a C20 casement. Above, to left, a bracketed square louvred opening and to right, two C20 casements. South gable has C20 fenestration, and above, 2 reset corbels. North range south side has to left a single storey range, 3 bays, with a doorway flanked to right by 2 unglazed windows with wooden mullions. To the right, a 2 storey building, 2 bays, known as the Norman House, with a shallow central buttress and a moulded first floor band. To left, a wide mid C20 door and an unglazed window, formerly mullioned. To the right, a shouldered doorway and a small window. Above, 2 double round headed windows, that to the right without its central shaft. To the left, a small pointed light. South range, 5 bays, fronting Sibthorp Street, incorporates several reset C12 fragments. INTERIOR has in the north-west corner of the west range a fireplace with joggled lintel, flanked by a blocked window and a doorway. North-east corner has a restored doorway and a C12 stone spiral stair overlaid by a late C20 stair. North wall has a window opening. First floor hall has on the west side a fireplace, flanked to the left by 2 windows and to right by a single window, all with keeled shafts. North gable has a blocked double arched opening with central round pier. Restored C17 single purlin roof. North range interior has several reset C12 fragments, and east end has a C17 scissor braced double purlin roof. HISTORY: St Mary's Guildhall may well be "the only survivor from the small group of the king's town houses which existed in several major towns....St Mary's Guildhall is a domestic complex on a palatial scale, indicating the highest social status, and as such is representative of a little known urban building type." ( Stocker) It was used from 1251 to 1547 as the headquarters of the Great Guild of St Mary, Lincoln's most important guild, and began to be used as a maltings during this time. It was remodelled early in the C17 for the Bluecoat School, and was subsequently adapted for industrial uses, mainly malting. Scheduled Ancient Monument, County No.46. Buildings of England : Lincolnshire: Pevsner N: Lincolnshire: London: 1989-: 504-505. The Archaeology of Lincoln: Stocker D et al: St Mary's Guildhall, Lincoln: Lincoln: 1991-: 91-92). Listing NGR: SK9731270454

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