Chantry House and Skeffington House

Two Tudor houses in the heart of modern Leicester

William Wigston´s Chantry House was added to the Newarke precinct around 1511. William Wigston was a wealthy Leicester wool merchant and town benefactor. The Chantry House was built as a home for two priests who said masses and prayers for the souls of the royal family and William Wigston himself. Around 1600 the Chantry House became a grand domestic residence.

Skeffington House

Built between 1560 and 1583, it’s the only surviving Elizabethan urban gentry house in Leicestershire. Thomas Skeffington, the house´s first owner, was Sheriff of Leicestershire at the time of the Spanish Armada. John Whatton, the house´s third owner and part of Charles I´s royal household, was on the Siege of Leicester committee during the English Civil War. The house, originally of rubble stone like the Chantry House, was much altered by its 18th-century owners. They built a brick extension and clad everything in stucco (plaster) to give it an elegant Georgian appearance.

Chantry House with scaffolding after bomb damage during WWII

What remains of the two houses today?

Fortunately the Chantry House survived bomb damage during World War II and now both houses form Newarke Houses. Features of the original buildings and their past owners remain. William Wigston´s coat of arms and a partition wall survive inside the Chantry House. The elegant panelling and grand staircase added by William Wright to Skeffington House in the 18th century are also evident, as are his initials over the front gate.

The Regimental Gallery at Newarke Houses Museum

Newarke Houses

The two houses are now the home of Leicester’s social history and Royal Leicestershire Regiment museums.

The museum has extensive public gardens planted with a wide variety of flowers, shrubs and trees.

Discover the history of the Leicestershire Tigers Regiment, including a recreation of a First World War trench with sound and lighting. The museum displays include a cinema experience, a collection of toys from Tudor to present day and a play area for children to try various games. Find out more about Leicester’s famous son Daniel Lambert and visit a 1950s street scene inspired by Wharf Street, Leicester.

Find out how to visit.