The Domus Dei was a religious community, serving as a hospital for travellers and for the poor and sick. It was headed by a prior or warden, who was a priest. It was intended to house 12 poor men, known as brethren, although later there seem to have been six men and six women living there. The brethren were probably supposed to help look after travellers who were waiting to sail or had arrived in the port. However, we know little of what the establishment did during its three centuries of existence.

The hospital occupied a large rectangular precinct. Its main building looks like a church today, but in the Middle Ages the ‘nave’ area was used like a hospital ward with beds for residents and visitors along either side. The vaulted chancel, to the east, was the hospital chapel. This was a common form for hospitals in medieval Europe. The south side of the precinct was lined with other buildings, including a hall, kitchen and chambers, which have since disappeared.

When the Domus Dei’s property was valued in 1535, its income was £79 13s. 7½d., of which £33 19s. 5d. was paid to the warden as his stipend. It was a generous sum, and the post was usually granted to a cleric from an aristocratic background or with privileged connections. A chaplain priest probably ran it from day to day. The 12 brethren were each meant to receive sixpence a week, and 7 loaves of bread and 5 gallons of ale per fortnight.

In 1539 the historian and writer John Leland visited Portsmouth and described the Domus Dei as ‘a fair hospital … wherein were of late 12 poor men, and yet six be in it’. By this time, the Suppression of the Monasteries was well advanced. The Domus Dei was one of the last religious houses in the country to be suppressed. The last warden, John Incent, surrendered it to the Crown on 2 June 1540. He was appointed Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral in London in the same year.

A Munitions Store

The Domus Dei occupied a large, roughly rectangular precinct, south of the town centre. When built it had a clear view to the sea, but by the early 16th century stone walls had been built along the seafront. By 1540 the town’s defences enclosed it to the south-west, south and south-east, blocking the views in these directions. These defences have since largely disappeared.

The Royal Dockyard was becoming increasingly important at this time. The royal warship Mary Rose had been built there in 1510–11, and Portsmouth was its home port. The Crown retained the Domus Dei on its closure to serve as an armoury and munitions store.

The layout of the buildings at the time is known in some detail from a survey of Portsmouth made in 1546. A list made on 27 September 1547 of ‘Munitions within the Church at Goddeshouse’ includes supplies of iron shot, top, shovels and spades, and chests of bows and arrows. Some of these stores were probably on the Mary Rose when it joined the fateful naval action against the French in the Solent on 19 July 1546, and sank within sight of Portsmouth.

From the later 16th century Portsmouth had a military governor. Documents of 1581 and 1582 contain a description of the buildings, with estimates of the cost of repairs and works ‘for converting God’s House and other buildings into a residence for the Governor’. In 1581–2 what is now the nave of the church was being used to store gunpowder, pikes, bill-hooks and other munitions. The western bay of the church was probably taken down at this time, and the shortened nave given a new west front. The total cost of the work was estimated at £500 8s 8d.

A Grand Reception

The last of these great events took place in June 1814, when the ‘Allied Sovereigns’ – Tsar Alexander I of Russia and King Frederick William IV of Prussia – together with Prince William of Prussia, allied commanders including Marshal Blücher and Prince Platov, and numerous courtiers, arrived in Portsmouth at the start of a visit to England. They and the Prince Regent received the acclamations of the crowd from the balcony of the Governor’s House. The Prince Regent hosted a dinner for 40 there on the evening of 22 June. The house was a modest setting for such a gathering, but it was illuminated with the word ‘Peace’ on the roof, and the letters A and F (for Alexander and Frederick).

This was to be the last major event at the Governor’s House. It was demolished in 1826, leaving the Garrison Church standing in isolation. The church’s appearance had changed greatly since the 16th century. The original roof had been replaced by a low-pitched one. The nave and chancel had large, plain windows: only the east window retained its original 13th-century design, with three lancet lights (narrow, pointed windows). The outer walls were probably covered with cement render.

Inside, the nave arcades and chancel vault preserved something of their medieval appearance. But otherwise the church was a large, light space, with yellow-washed walls, and filled with Georgian pews.