Home > Co. Durham > Durham > Archdeacons Inn Archdeacons Inn
Date of photo: 2010	Photo © Jo Turner
The Archdeacons Inn was situated on Palace Green. Grade-II* listed house, originally Archdeacons's Inn built around 1700. In 1833, the building was given to the University of Durham as the home of University College and the residence of the university's first students. The first students took residence in Michaelmas Term 1833, under the supervision of the Bursar. It subsequently became known as University House. In 1837, Durham Castle was granted to the University and became the primary home of University College, with University House being retained as additional accommodation for the college. The high level of applications for admission to Hatfield Hall (pioneering the practice of letting rooms furnished and serving food communally at a fixed price) led the university to decide to establish a second hall to operate on the same basis, and in October 1851 Bishop Cosin's Hall was opened. Falling student numbers in the late 1850s and 60s resulted in Bishop Cosin's Hall being merged into University College at the start of Michaelmas Term 1864. The students in residence were transferred partly to University College and partly to Bishop Hatfield's Hall. The Institute of Advanced Studies accepted its first fellows in January 2006 and was formally inaugurated into the university in October that year.
Source: Steve Turner
Listed building details:
House, originally Archdeacons's Inn, later university hall of residence. Circa 1700. Brick of varied English garden wall bond, with rendered brick and painted ashlar dressings; stone flagged roof; banded brick chimneys. 3 storeys, 7 bays. Double half-glazed door in third bay in large elaborate case: panelled curved reveal to door under rococo shell in round arch; this flanked by fluted Ionic pilasters supporting entablatures with leaf-carved pulvinated frieze; from these spring a high segmental modillioned arch, its tympanum filled with leaf carving. Sash windows with fine glazing bars have shaped brick aprons and projecting stone sills, and stone-keyed flat brick arches. Parapet has flat stone coping. Darker brick at floor levels. 4 transverse ridge chimneys. Round cast-iron tie-ends. Sun and Phoenix insurance plaques. Interior converted to flats; central stair has winders and long landings; balustrade renewed. Some 2-panelled doors with architraves.
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