Winchester Palace

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as; Winchester House

In the civil parish of Bermondsey Rotherhithe And Southwark.
In the historic county of Surrey (Modern Authority of London Borough of Southwark, 1974 county of Greater London).

Winchester Palace was the largest palace of the Bishops of Winchester for over 500 years. It was built for William Giffard, Bishop of Winchester, in 1109. The bishops usually held high office from C14 until 1550 and many important visitors were entertained here. In 1424 James I of Scotland and Joan Beaufort held their wedding reception here after their marriage in Southwark Cathedral. In 1540 Henry VIII probably met Catherine Howard, his fifth bride, at the house. The last bishop to live there was Lancelot Andrewes who died in 1626. In 1642, when the epsicopacy was supressed by order of Parliament, it was converted to a prison for royalists. It remained a prison for five years and was then sold to Thomas Walker of Camberwell. At the Restoration it was returned to the see of Winchester but was in such a bad state that the Bishop let it out as tenements and it gradually deteriorated. In 1814 a fire revealed the rose window in the great hall, 13ft in diameter, in a warehouse in Clink Street. The standing remains are mainly early C14 in date, standing on the foundations of the earlier palace.

This site has been described as a;
Palace.
The confidence that this site is a medieval fortification or palace is Possible.
Masonry ruins/remnants remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.
This site is a Grade 2* listed building protected by law*. (Images of England number 470785)

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is TQ32578039

Sources of information, references and further reading

PastScape number; 404707

Books

Seely, D., [forthcoming], A Palace in Southwark of the medieval Bishops of Winchester
Emery, Anthony, 2006, Greater Medieval Houses Vol3 (Cambridge) p231-2, 430-34
Elliot, Julia (ed), 2005, Heritage Unlocked; Guide to free sites in London and the South East (English Heritage) p15-7
Keevill, Graham D., 2000, Medieval Palaces, An Archaeology (Stroud; Tempus) p55, 159, 165
Thompson, M.W., 1998, Medieval bishops' houses in England and Wales (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing) p185
Carlin, M., 1996, Medieval Southwark
Schofield, J., 1994, Medieval London House (Yale University Press) p229 No193
James, T.B., 1990, The Palaces of Medieval England (London; Seaby) p23, 43-4
Weinreb, Ben and Hibbert, Christopher (eds), 1983 [rev edn 1993], The London Encyclopeadia (Macmillian) p993
Wood, Margaret, 1965, The English Mediaeval House (London: Bracken) p29, 357
Roberts, H. and Godfrey, W.H. (eds), 1950, Survey of London: Bankside (the Parishes of St. Saviour and Christchurch Southwark) Vol22 p45-55

Journal Articles

Philpotts, C., 1999, London Archaeology Vol9.2 p47-53
Yule, Brian, 1989, 'Excavations at Winchester Palace, Southwark' London Archaeologist
Carlin, M., 1985, 'The reconstruction of Winchester House', London Topographical Record Vol25 p35-57
Toy, S., 1944-5, Surrey Archaeological Collections Vol49 p75-81

Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)

William Camden, 1607, Britannia [http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/cambrit/midlesexeng.html#mids23]

Other sources and unpublished works (Theses, in-house reports and other such)

Carlin, M., 1983, The Urban Development of Southwark c.1200-1550 (Unpub. PhD thesis, University of Toronto) p79-119

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*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.

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