• Welcome An historic Tudor building in Gloucester
Bishop Hooper’s House, 99-101 Westgate Street, Gloucester, GL1 2PG
info@thefolkofgloucester.co.uk
Discover Our Story
The Folk of Gloucester is a project situated within a 16th century Tudor
building with the City community at its heart. Honouring and learning about our past, by bringing people together
from the present, our aim is to keep the history of Gloucester city alive through the telling of stories.
Gloucester is a beautiful, vibrant and diverse city full of history and it is our intention that everyone in the local community will have the opportunity to be involved in The Folk of Gloucester. Through the display of objects, exhibitions, and delivery of programmes and events we will bring to life the stories of the people of the City of Gloucester from the Tudor period to the present day. We want every child within the
city and surrounding districts to visit The Folk to discover and rediscover their love for this historically important building and City.
In November 2019 The Gloucester Civic Trust agreed a licence to operate The Folk with Gloucester City Council. The Gloucester Civic Trust’s charitable purpose is to raise the public awareness and interest in the City, promote high standards of local planning and architecture and secure the preservation, protection, development and improvement of features of historic interest in Gloucester. Under this arrangement we will now be able to programme regular community led events and begin formulating comprehensive plans for the future of the building and bring it back into use at the heart of our community.
The building has an excellent café where visitors can take a break including a delightful “Tudor” garden area when the weather suits.
Also on site are a pair of excellent, state of the art, meeting rooms, called the “EdShed”, which are available for hire.
If you’d like to help us with this amazing place, please considering donating or volunteering.
Come and see us What's on at the Folk
Third Thursday Folk Song & Tune Session
Third Thursday of every month at The Folk Of Gloucester 12-3pm. A session of Folk Songs and Tunes organised by Bill & Rebecca from local duo ReBil. Come and have lunch at the Secret Garden Cafe and join us.
Gloucester Storytelling Café
Saffy and Jane Springham are pleased to have started running a monthly Storytelling Café at The Folk. The Café is on every first Thursday of the month from 7pm for ages 14+. There will be invited guest storytellers, music and open mic every month. We want to hear all kinds of storytelling – so whether you enjoy traditional, real life, original works, narrative poems or flash fiction there will be something for everyone! Oral telling and written tales, beginners and experienced performers alike are welcome.We’d love you to come along and join us at our future dates:
June 1st – two guest tellers Kelly bringing stories from the Romany community and Matt McCall with steampunk fables
July 6th – Open mic special! Led by Saffy and Jane and a surprise teller – bring us your fabulous stories
August 3rd – Summer special – beach hats optional!
September 7th – Storytelling with a local history flavour
October 5th – Guest storytellers - Ominous Folk of Hopeless Maine
November 2nd – Tales for the darkening season – featured teller Fiona Eadie
December 7th – Festive tales of merriment and mirth with a little Christmas “spirit”
Gloucester Folk Choir at The Folk of Gloucester
Gloucester folk choir, a new community choir for the city of Gloucester. Run by experienced and playful leader Sorrel Wilde. Songs from a variety of traditions, open to all levels of singer.
The Choir runs on Thursday evenings from 7pm to 8:30pm during term time.
*Open to all
Gloucester Folk Choir is a new community choir for Gloucester, based at The Folk of Gloucester. The choir will be based on natural voice principles, there will be no auditions and generally, we will not be using music.
The choir will be run by Sorrel Wilde, who also runs the Island Folk Choir in Bristol. Having grown up in Gloucester, Sorrel has relocated here and is working between Glos and Bristol. Sorrel's style of teaching is playful and focussed, she aims to put singers at ease and grow to love their voices and find their innate musicality.
You can see more about Sorrel's work on
Instagram: @sorrelsings
Facebook: Sorrel Wilde community singing
or her not-so-up-to-date website: sorrelwildesinging.co.uk
The songs will be largely from the British folk tradition, but will also reach further afield and also into the wonderful Natural Voice network repertoire of gorgeous circle songs and seasonal songs.
“Sorrel holds space for singing and sound in a way that instantly puts you at ease and connects the whole group. I come away from every session with a warm heart, a big smile and beautiful song arrangements floating through my mind and off my tongue all week. It's magic!” (Freya, choir member)
The choir will be lgbtq+ friendly, neurodivergent friendly and as accessible as it can be. Please get in touch if you have any specific needs that we can try to accommodate.
FREE Craft Workshops – Exploring Textiles
A time to explore textiles, join our making space to learn, share skills, experiment and explore a variety of materials and techniques.
No Previous experience is required.
Join us for a relaxing morning of crafting.
All Materials will be provided.
Gloucester Songwriters Circle
Fancy yourself as the next Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell??
The Gloucester Songwriters Circle meets at the Folk of Gloucester on the third Tuesday of the month with the aim of encouraging each other in our songwriting endeavours.
Everyone brings something that they are working on and offers it to the group for advice, appreciation, and suggestions. All genres are welcome.
An opportunity to try out your work in a very supportive environment.
For more information contact glossongs@yahoo.com
Entrance is via the back gates.
The Ed Shed Two Meeting rooms available to hire
Courtyard View
Facilities Include
- Wifi
- Smart Board
- Disabled parking
- Disabled toilet and lift
- Flip chart
- Fridge
- Projector
- Sink & Worktop
- Tea and Coffee facilities
Tower View
Room Layouts
- Board Room
- Cabaret Style
- Classroom
- Clear Space
- U Shape
- Horeshoe chairs only
- Theatre
News Latest NEWS
Historic Gloucester in Lego!
Roman Stones Discovered at deCrypt
Gloucester City Archaeologist Andrew Armstrong talks about the important Roman stones found during excavation work in Southgate Street, Gloucester, near St Mary deCrypt Church.
Protecting St Oswalds
Gloucester City Conservation Officer Kate Biggs introduces the repair and conservation work currently being done on Aethelflaed’s St Oswald’s Priory. Followed by a detailed talk and demonstration of the works by historic building conservationist Jake Etherton
The River Twyver
Gloucester City Tour Guide Paul Drinkwater talks about the history of the River Twyver.