The restoration of Minor Canon Row

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The city of Rochester boasts many building gems, among them Minor Canon Row, one of the finest examples of 18th-century English domestic architecture. Caroline Wheater visits the recently revived landmark.

In the north eastern corner of Kent, near the mouth of the River Medway, lies Rochester. The city’s star may have faded since it was part of the vital route from Dover to London, named Watling Street by the Romans, but its prestige lives on in its architectural heritage. For more than 900 years, stately Rochester Cathedral has towered above the cobbled streets below – a beacon of spirituality and permanence to pilgrims, knights, travellers and townspeople. As befits such a building, clusters of houses built for the Dean and Chapter are ranged around the manicured grounds, many dating from the 17th and 18th centuries, and replacements for earlier medieval buildings.

With their commanding views of the cathedral these houses are highly sought after, but rarely come on the market so, when the cathedral put up Minor Canon Row for sale three years ago, a frisson of excitement rippled through the city. The Row, Grade I listed, is considered an outstanding example of 18th-century urban domestic architecture and was built between 1722 and 1735. As its name suggests, the terrace of seven townhouses accommodated the cathedral’s minor canons and organist, a purpose it continued to serve until very recently.

ABOVE (left-right): Author Charles Dickens lived in Rochester from 1856 and described the Row as a ‘quiet place in the shadow of the cathedral’; Rochester Cathedral towers over Minor Canon Row.

Ripe for renewal
‘The Row had got to the point where it had to be modernised or sold,’ explains Oliver Leigh-Wood, administrator of the Spitalfields Trust, which became the owners in 2008. The Trust, a buildings preservation charity that helped save old Spitalfields in London, moved swiftly when Minor Canon Row came up for sale. ‘The cathedral invited expressions of interest and with our track record in restoring Georgian buildings we became the preferred bidders.’

If buildings could sigh with relief surely Minor Canon Row would have done so. The Trust is only interested in covering costs for restoration and repair, not in making large profits. It struck a deal with the cathedral to restore the integrity of the Row by taking on the repair of the external envelopes of all seven houses – brickwork, roofs, doors and windows – plus the complete repair and restoration of Numbers 1 and 7. After exterior repairs, Numbers 2 to 6 were sold on to private buyers for further interior renovation, working with local conservation officers.

ABOVE (left-right): The view from the front parlour at Number 7; Scaffolding seen from the back of the Row as repairs were made externally.

The Trust was delighted by what it found, despite the huge amount of repair needed. ‘The church spent money very judiciously and repaired old fittings rather than ripping them out, leaving many of the original 18th-century features intact,’ Oliver enthuses. ‘Nearly all the original front doors, windows, some windowpanes, shutters and built-in china cabinets are here, plus various fireplaces and Welsh dressers.’ This was despite the fact that in the 1950s, Numbers 1 to 6 were divided into three pairs and converted horizontally into flats. Fortunately Number 7 – the organist’s home and the last of the Row to be built in 1735 – was left as a whole house, little altered.

‘The first thing we had to do was to divide Numbers 1 to 6 back into individual, four storey houses and remove the flats, which meant taking out all the wiring and plumbing,’ says Oliver. ‘In early 2009 we brought in our highly experienced site foreman, Brian Hole, who organised a team of carpenters, electricians, plumbers, plasterers and bricklayers to carry out the exterior repairs. Anyone who has worked on these houses must love what they do because nothing is vertical, horizontal or level. These are buildings that have moved around and found a more comfortable position in which to stand.’

ABOVE (left-right): The Row’s generous gardens would have been cultivated; Original features abound, such as this 18th-century lion’s head door knocker.

To the front of the Row the ugly concrete entrance steps were re-clad in stone and brick sympathetic to houses elsewhere on the cathedral precinct. ‘We replaced all the rotting Victorian softwood pine railings with hardwood oak railings. They have silvered very quickly and look like they’ve been here several hundred years,’ points out Oliver. The Georgian brick walls had worn well, but where necessary were repointed with lime mortar, and terracotta roof tiles were replaced or repaired.

Repairing the sash and casement windows was a huge job in itself. Carpenter John Martin painstakingly stripped 300 years-worth of paint from dozens of windows and shutters and repaired rotted areas to reveal the well-crafted windows beneath. Sash windows were re-weighted and re-hung. He notes that while the carpentry doesn’t have the finesse of a bespoke Georgian house it is nevertheless of high quality, using materials such as well-seasoned pitch pine wood with a tight grain, the like of which is simply not available today.

ABOVE (left-right): Scraps of 18th- and 19th-century wallpaper have been regular finds; The front door bell at Number 7 awaits some attention.

Interior focus
After work on the external envelopes was completed, internal repairs to Number 1 began in January 2010 to a design drawn up by the Trust and architect Morris Highamon, as close to the original layout as possible, but bearing in mind modern-day living. All the rooms at the front of the house, including a sitting room and master bedroom, make best use of the deep sash windows that look out on the cathedral.

Original fireplaces, one in luxurious marble, have been uncovered and wooden china cabinets stripped of layers of thick paint to reveal their pretty carved detailing. Patch repairs were carried out to internal lime plaster walls, and a new kitchen installed with access to the garden.

As well as fully restoring Number 1, the Trust also took on responsibility for Prior’s Gate, an Ancient Scheduled Monument next door, and one of three remaining medieval guardhouses that were built into the city walls. ‘Rochester was a walled city – eventually the walls were taken down but the guardhouses remained. We’ve taken a long lease on it and put in a new external staircase that rises up from the garden of Number 1. It could be used as a library, a study or a teenager’s den,’ says Oliver.

ABOVE (left-right): The basement of each house has a separate entrance; One of many original china cupboards.

When work on Number 1 finished in autumn 2010, repairs started on Number 7, formerly the cathedral organist’s home. ‘As this house was unconverted,’ says Oliver, ‘we’ve found panelling, cornicing, fragments of wallpaper, bell pulls, door furniture and a Carrara marble fireplace.’

In the 18th century the basement kitchen was the world of the cook, with its own entrance to the street where deliveries would have been made. It was obviously a frequently used room and the internal stairs have gradually worn down. Another treat in store for the next residents is a large Welsh dresser that has remained in situ.

Number 7 will go on the market in the summer. ‘As long as we have covered our costs, we will be happy,’ says Oliver, thrilled to have helped Minor Canon Row into the new century.

Find out more about the Spitalfields Trust...

WORDS CAROLINE WHEATER PHOTOGRAPHS CAROLINE WHEATER; OLIVER LEIGH-WOOD
Featured in the June 2011 issue of Period Living