Category: High Street

Coaching Inn with early 19th c. stucco front but with 17th century interiors and a 13th century crypt (probably a wine store).  Now Guildford’s oldest hotel, this is the last remaining coaching house in the town. Others were the Red Lion and White Hart. It was once one of several serving the coaches running from…

Saxon church, 10th c. on the site of earliest settlement in Guildford. The flint tower has been dated to the late 10th century on stylistic grounds and a local legend says people used it to watch the Norman invaders burn nearby Shalford in 1066. Most of the church was rebuilt in c1180 in the transitional…

Surrey’s only large 18th century church, it has fine brickwork as is a perfectly proportioned example of the Palladian style. It is built on the site of a medieval church which was destroyed when the tower suddenly collapsed during alterations to remove the columns in the church. Some monunments were transfered, among them the tomb…

Almshouse (or hospital) built by George Abbot, local boy and Archbishop of Canterbury for twelve men and eight women. At the time of its construction Abbot would have been rubbing shoulders with King James I and the future Charles I. Inigo Jones was introducing the Palladian style to England at the Queens House in Greenwich…

Tunsgate Arch was built in 1818 by Henry Garling as the entrance to the Corn Market (demolished 1935). Built in Portland stone, the Tuscan columns were originally evenly spaced but were moved in 1935 to allow traffic to pass through.

Former town hall and court room, the Guildhall is still used for ceremonial occasions and celebrations. With its turreted bell tower, distinctive clock and frontage it is a truly unique landmark. Pevsner describes it as “superb, the epitome Restoration panache” and the effect is more like the “carved poop of a 17th c. ship than…