None would have been more than two storeys above ground. Most would have had rooms on the ground floor and a single storey above, and many in the wealthier streets would have had an undercroft or cellar. Very many buildings were still of one storey, particularly in the suburbs and the poorer marginal parts of the city. Domestic life for everyone centred on the hall. This was the principal room of a house and was usually at ground level, open to the roof, with no rooms above. It was usually the only heated room, with a central hearth in the middle of the floor, or a wall fireplace in wealthier buildings.

Housing would have been mostly timber-framed. Carpentry was developing very rapidly around 1250. Old-style structures, supported by timber posts dug into the ground, were being replaced by new buildings on stone footings. These had a much longer potential life span. A minority of the wealthiest houses would have been built in stone, often halls built behind the commercial frontages of the city centre.

Little is known of exterior decoration at this time, but it is likely that the majority of houses were painted externally with a red ochre colour, but other colours may have been used. Many would have been lime-washed (white), and this is known to have been true of the cathedral.

Roofs are likely to have been covered with ceramic tiles; the wealthier houses may have had roofs with glazed, crested ridge tiles (some may still be seen on the Commandery roof) and ornate pottery louvres to allow smoke to escape from the hall hearth below. Poorer dwellings, like suburban cottages, may still have been thatched.

Crowds and Traffic Footfall

pedestrian through-traffic was absolutely as vital to medieval city commerce as it is to today's. The most central areas of the busiest through-streets were then, as now, the most profitable to trade from, and competition and land values determined who built what where. Busiest and wealthiest of all was the area around the Guildhall on the High Street. Traffic could be a nuisance when pedestrians, wheeled vehicles and livestock coincided on market days, and the dispersal of marketing areas seems to have been an early priority in organising city life. Traffic jams could develop at the gates, where tolls were taken, and were a factor encouraging the development of markets outside.

City Churches

There were ten parish churches in medieval Worcester, founded at various times between (probably) the late Roman period and c.1200 A.D. Most were probably founded in the late Saxon period, between c.900 and 1100, the great age of parish church building. St Michael in Bedwardine (in the cathedral cemetery) was almost certainly later. Most were founded by successive bishops of Worcester. Because so many were completely rebuilt in the 18th century knowledge of their development in the Middle Ages is limited. But in 1250 nearly all would have been fairly recently rebuilt in the Norman style, and gothic architectural styles would be beginning to make an impact. Few would have had towers.

The wealthier churches, or those serving the most populous parishes, would have had or been building side-aisles at this period. The open ground around the churches would not yet have been used for burials but would probably have contained gardens, and the house of the priest serving each church.