The
Dean's Cloister was constructed in the 1350s as the architectural hub
of the new collegiate buildings. It comprises four covered walks, lit
by fine traceried windows. Enclosed within them is a small garden with
a fountain in its centre. This fountain was designed by Canon John White
in 1998 and constructed by the then Surveyor of the Fabric Dr Charles
Brown. It was erected to commemorate 650 years of service by the Military
Knights of Windsor (originally the Alms Knights). It shows the figure
of St George slaying the dragon, a copy of a statue originally concealed
in the choir stalls.
This
cloister stands on the site of an earlier cloister and garden laid out
in the 13th century by Henry III between his royal lodgings and the chapel
of St Edward, now the Albert Memorial Chapel. One fragment of the earlier
cloister has been preserved: the inner wall of the south walk is 13th-century
and decorated with a blind arcade. Remarkably, there survives on it a
wall painting depicting the head of a king. This is a very rare and fine
example of the kind of wall paintings that we know filled Henry III's
palaces.
All the principal collegiate buildings opened off this cloister. To the
south stood the first chapel of the foundation, now the Albert Memorial
Chapel, and to the north the Canons' Cloister. Along the east walk there
originally existed three important interiors: the Dean's Lodging, the
Chapter House and a revestry. In the 15th century a second Chapter House,
for the canons, was built beyond the Porch of Honour and by degrees the
Dean's house has come to occupy this whole range. The former revestry
now serves as the Dean's chapel.
The
west walk of the cloister originally formed an outside boundary to the
college with only the college entrance porch - the spectacular Porch of
Honour - built against it.

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