The medieval kitchen at St. Mary's Guildhall
The medieval kitchen at St. Mary’s Hall survives, essentially intact, beneath the skin of later
modifications. It is significant on a national level, being one of the earliest and best-preserved
examples of a medieval kitchen in the country.
Layout and appearance
The kitchen was divided into two parts, the ‘high kitchen’,
roughly square and open to the roof three floors above, and the
‘low kitchen’ which was merely one storey high with rooms over.
To the rear of the kitchen a door leads out through the south
wall. Today this door leads directly outside but originally it gave
access to the ‘pastry’ or bakehouse. Together with Caesar's
Tower, this building may have been one of the surviving
structures from the demolished Coventry castle, which remained
on the site when the Guildhall was built in the 1340s. The 'pastry'
building was removed in 1871.
Early 19th century engraving of
the kitchen interior, looking east
In addition to the kitchen and the pastry there were other rooms dedicated to the preparation of
food, with archival references to a tart house, a bottle house and a jelly house. The most likely
position for any of these rooms is the basement of Caesar’s Tower or the present ‘small
kitchen’. The basement of Caesar’s Tower is the most likely site for anything that needed to be
kept cool.
Despite being a functional space, unseen by most guests attending the grand events above, the
kitchen was architecturally elaborate and prestigious, with an arcade of two massive stone
arches, traceried windows and finely carved stone corbels.
Feast and function
The kitchen and ancillary rooms were designed to supply the dinners with which the Guild
celebrated the major events of its year, particularly Saint's feast days, and occasions connected
with Guild business such as the collection of fines, and rents on Guild property.
Page from Chamberlain's Accounts, 1581,
detailing food for the Earl of Leicester visit
When the City Council took complete control of the
Guildhall in 1552, the occasions may have changed but
the function of the kitchen remained the same. Like the
guild the city council celebrated at the rent days, and also
entertained visiting dignitaries, with surviving accounts
offering an insight into the lavish banquets prepared for
the visits of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester in 1581, the
eight year old Princess Elizabeth in 1604, and that of her
father, King James I, in 1617.
Fall from grace
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the kitchen
still serviced occasional ceremonies and council functions,
but it seemed grand entertaining was increasingly a thing of
the past. It was briefly pressed into use as a soup kitchen in
1861, when a collapse in the domestic cloth trade cast local
weavers into poverty, but its importance was generally in
decline. A visitor in 1870 noted the presence of an oven still
in the bakehouse, but said that the storerooms had become
a deposit for lumber, and that the kitchen itself was chiefly
used by the hall-keeper for ‘domestic purposes’.
View of kitchen circa 1903, with one of
the 1889 cooking ranges in the hearth
The soup kitchen at St. Mary’s Guildhall
from the London Illustrated News, 1861
Whilst its role as a working kitchen continued to decline into
the twentieth century, its significance as a rare and important
historic structure was recognised, and a number of repairs
were undertaken to consolidate the crumbling fabric. It was
even proposed in the 1930s that the space be turned into a
museum, adding more exhibits for the interest of visitors to
the small collection of curiosities that had already been on
show since the turn of the century (including the 'Knave's
Whipping Post' and statue of King Henry VI, both of which
are now at the Herbert Art Gallery).
Concealing the medieval kitchen
At about the same time, however, concerns were being
raised regarding the facilities available for civic catering, the
main argument being that insufficient space was available for
the Mayor for entertainment, and that the Armoury was
needed as a supplementary dining area.
To ensure that there was easier access to this a bridge link
was proposed between the Council House and St. Mary’s
Hall, and a new floor would be needed at second floor level
in what had been the upper part of the kitchen, to connect the
bridge to the Armoury and lavatories, and a small kitchen or
servery.
View of the kitchen circa 1949, shortly
before works commenced
Discussions began in 1949,
and approval was given to proceed, but it was not until 1955 that
work started on site.
In addition to these structural changes, by the early 1960s food
hygiene requirements enforced concealment of the historic fabric
of the kitchen interior behind impervious wall linings, and the
sealing off of the medieval hearth recesses.
Carved 'Green Man' corbel in roof
of kitchen, on new upper floor
With the exception of periodic equipment upgrades, this layout
and appearance of the kitchen remains to this day.