22, Mint Exeter, England

Text courtesy of Historic England. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.

SX 9192 SE THE MINT (South side) 871/5/10120 No.22

GV II

Roman Catholic chapel, later used as school and disused at time of survey. 1830s. Architect unknown to date. Heavitree and volcanic random rubble with red brick and freestone dressings; corrugated asbestos roof. Romanesque Revival with Greek Doric gallery frontal. Plan: The building is sited with its W end into a courtyard off the Mint. The other two ranges round the courtyard include a house probably converted from one of the medieval buildings of St Nicholas' Priory (21 The Mint, Grade II*) and a C19 schoolroom. Overall T plan with remains of W and E end galleries, the main body of the building divided into 2 rooms. The E end is wider and there are porch blocks in the angle with the rest of the building. Exterior: Romanesque W end with coped pilasters up to gallery level and a shallow coped gable with kneelers; stringcourse at sill level of the gallery windows. Round-headed W doorway with engaged piers with Romanesque style capitals. The arch has a hoodmould and 2 orders of chevron carving. 2-leaf plank door with scrolled hinges. The doorway is flanked by round-headed windows. 3 upper windows are also round-headed with engaged piers with capitals and moulded architraves to the arches. Stone wheel window in gable with lattice. 4 tall windows to each of the long sides, the westernmost windows round-headed, the others square-headed. The rear elevation has tall, high-transomed 8 over 16-pane windows. The N porch to the rear has a segmental-headed doorway and round-headed chamfered blocked window over with a probably secondary small brick window alongside the door. INTERIOR: The W end gallery includes a stick baluster staircase and the Greek Doric colonnade with fluted columns survives, partly buried in a boarded partition. The W end room, which retains the colonnade, retains what is probably its original cornice. It is divided from the E room by a panelled partition. The eastern room also retains its deep cornice and coved ceiling with a giant bead moulding. The wider E end of the building has been partly stripped of its plaster and retains a stick baluster stair with turned newel posts to a small section of upper flooring. Historical Note: This is an interesting and very early example of Romanesque Revival architecture associated with an early C19 Roman Catholic chapel. The courtyard off the Mint where the chapel is sited is archaeologically sensitive for the remains of St Nicholas' Priory.

Listing NGR: SX9177592502