Guided Tour

Great Kitchen

The Great Kitchen is lit by high windows through which rays of sunlight pour like liquid in the thick, hot atmosphere. The walls stream with moisture. On the right (if you have entered from the kitchen corridor) a hatch of strong timber opens into the gare-de-manger with its stacks of cold meat and hanging carcases. A fixed table runs the length of the wall, carrying huge bowls capable of holding fifty portions each.

Hanging along the walls are rows of sticking knives and steels, boning knives, skinning knives, and two-handed cleavers. Below them is a twelve-by-nine foot chopping block, cross-hatched and hollowed.

On the right is a row of metal-doored, capacious ovens, beyond a row of supporting pillars.

Opposite the door to the kitchen corridor is a small doorway beyond which a narrow passage leads to the Stone Lanes.

Kitchen Corridor

Stone Lanes

Other places to visit

• The Hall of Bright Carvings
• Ante-room to the Hall of Bright Carvings
• Stone Quadrangle
• Kitchen Corridor
• Great Kitchen
• Stone Lanes
• Cat Room
• Octagonal Room