Beautiful Worcester Buildings

chirp54
Nov 25, 2025
4 min read

We were staying in a little town outside of Evesham, Worcestershire, which is a great jumping off place for lots of sightseeing. Today we took the train into Worcester for a look around. We stopped at the Worcester Guild Hall to kill a little time before the guided walking tour of the city. It's striking on the outside

with its statues of King Charles I and King Charles II.

There has been a guildhall on this site since 1227, when a large timber building was erected on the site. The current building, designed by Thomas White, in the Queen Anne style, was completed in 1723. The ground floor

houses the court room. In the mid-1700s, prisoners were held in cells below and brought up to the Court Room via a flight of stairs that would have been in the center of the room. They have since been removed.

At one end of the ground floor are displayed leather fire buckets.

Before the 17th century, there was very little in the way of an organized fire service. Back in those days, fires were fought by parish groups using simple leather buckets, axes and "fire squirts" that would have been stored in the local church. The property owner would have displayed a plaque on the front of the property to show that they had a fire license. Without this plaque, the fire service would not help to put out the fire. Ah, privatization.

Up the stairs to the first floor (second floor in the US) is the beautiful assembly room.

King George III described the assembly room as "a handsome gallery" when he visited it in August 1788. It was remodelled in 1791 by George Byfield, with beautifully decorated apses at each end. Then in 1877 the architect Sir Gilbert Scott and the City Architect Henry Rowe remodeled the building and redesigned the Assembly Rooms with an extraordinary Italianate painted ceiling.

One of the alcoves holds a stage and a piano which once belonged to one of Worcester's favorite sons, Edward Elgar.

Statues and references to Elgar are all over town.

Even the restrooms are beautiful.

We walked next door to purchase our tickets for the walking tour but were told that the tour guide had called out sick and no one else was available. We said we'd try again in a few days but were told that the tours aren't offered after the first of November. Well, I guess we'll just have to save that for the next visit.

From the tourist office we walked to Worcester Cathedral, founded in 680.

Parts of the current cathedral date from 1084. The chapter house dates from 1120 and the nave was expanded in the 1170s.

We had a very enthusiastic guide who told us a lot about its history. The cathedral is the burial place of King John, widely known as the villain in all the Robin Hood stories. He is most famous for sealing Magna Carta, which some historians regard as the first step towards England’s constitutional monarchy. As the fourth surviving son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, John was never expected to become king and was destined for a career in the Church. With so many older brothers there was nothing left for him to inherit and he was given the rather humiliating epithet ‘Lackland’. Following the death of his older and much more popular brother, Richard the Lionheart, John became king in 1199. He was an unpopular monarch and lost virtually all of his lands in France. He was, however, very fond of Worcester and, at his requests, was buried in front of the alter of Saint Wulfstan.

The cathedral is also home to the tomb of Price Arthur, first son of Henry VII. His chantry was made offsite and brought into the cathedral to be assembled. Our guide said that this was the world's first example of a flatpack (think IKEA).

The Lady chapel has a memorable ceiling; the cathedral thoughtfully provides a mirror so visitors don't need to strain their necks to see it.

In one of the chapels you can see the regimental flags of the Worcestershire regiment. They will hang in the chapel until they disintegrate and fall. Then they will be buried in hallowed ground.

There are a number of decorative misericords in the quire. Historically, when a service ran for many hours, the clergy could lower a small bench, known as a misericord, and lean against it to give their legs a bit of a break.