The Apothecary’s Cave

The Apothecary’s Cave is entered from the cellar via a flight of steps. Part of the way down on the right there is a niche which is assumed to have been used to store dangerous drugs. There is evidence of a strong door which used to be across the niche. Another niche above the bottom step may have contained a light.The cave itself is square with low thralls on either side of an archway leading to the north. There are brick bins built on a low shelf along the south wall. When the Society first entered the cave the bins were covered with a marble slab which could have been used as a dispensing or engraving slab (when the Blakey Brothers owned the building above). Built into the brickwork there is a small cupboard with evidence of a strong door and clasp which may have been used for storing drugs or poisons or perhaps engraving acids.
The roof of the cave has post holes which line up with the centre of the steps. The posts would have been big for strength and may have been used for hanging silk-screen printing frames or perhaps the cave was partitioned into two by a gate or guard.The cave floor was originally higher than it is today. At some stage in the past the floor was lowered by 12 inches (30cm) leaving a ledge along the south wall upon which the brick bins sit. Similarly the rock-cut steps leading in from the cellar appear to have been extended downwards to permit easy access to the lowered floor level.
To the north there are three further steps which lead into the Carboy Cave. There is a ½ inch (1.5cm) deep groove at the back of the bottom step and post holes at floor level suggesting that there was a door between these two caves – not a swinging door but a lift-up frame used as a divider.