The Lost Buildings of Durham: The City That Isn't There Anymore

For all that Durham is famous for what survives, the peninsula's cathedral and castle among the best-preserved in Europe, the city has lost plenty over the centuries too. Gates, gaols, halls and hotels have all come and gone. Here is our guide to the lost buildings of Durham and the stories they leave behind.

The Great North Gate

Durham was once a walled and gated city, and its most imposing entrance was the Great North Gate, which spanned the top of Saddler Street. It doubled as the city's gaol, a grim and cramped prison, until conditions became so notorious that a new prison was built at Elvet in 1810. The medieval gate itself was demolished in 1820 to ease traffic, and nothing of it remains above ground today.

The gaol under Elvet Bridge

Prisons are a recurring theme in the city's lost history. As well as the County Gaol on Saddler Street, Durham had a "Bridewell", or house of correction, built into the structure of Elvet Bridge, pictured above. The medieval bridge still stands, one of the city's finest, but its days as a place of confinement are long gone.

Best for: Look closely at Elvet Bridge and you can still trace where the old house of correction was built in.

County House on Palace Green

Palace Green, the green heart of the World Heritage Site between cathedral and castle, has changed more than it looks. The County House, built on its west side in 1588, was demolished in 1820 and replaced by the Diocesan Register Office, now part of Palace Green Library. Much of the Green's present dignified frontage masks a long history of building and rebuilding.

Kepier Hospital

Just outside the medieval city, the hospital of Kepier was founded in the 12th century, only to be burned down in the 1140s during the turbulence of the period, later rebuilt, and eventually reduced to the atmospheric ruins and gatehouse that survive by the river today. A whole medieval community rose and fell here.

The Waterloo Hotel

Not all of Durham's losses are ancient. The Waterloo Hotel on Old Elvet, a handsome coaching-era building, was demolished as recently as 1971 to make way for a new inner-city road, a reminder that even in a heritage city, the twentieth century took its toll.

What remains

Durham's losses make what survives all the more precious. For the buildings that are still standing, see our guides to walking Durham's World Heritage Site and interesting facts about Durham.

Know a lost Durham building we should record? Get in touch.