Also sometimes spelled as ‘Choir’, the Quire is the part of a church where sung services occur. Located in the eastern end of the Cathedral, Chichester’s Quire is separated from the nave by the Arundel Screen and situated below the crossing.
Laid in 1731, the current floor of the Quire is made out of black-and-white marble.
The Prebendal stalls in the Quire were provided by Bishop Langton in the 1330s and largely survived the fall of the Tower in 1861. They retain much of the original fabric, though the majority of the panelling and upper work of the stalls dates from a nineteenth century restoration.
Of particular note are the thirty-eight misericords hidden underneath the rear stalls. A misericord, or mercy seat, is a small wooden shelf carved to the underside of the choir stall. When the seat is tipped up, the shelf allows someone to rest on it.
The Quire is in current everyday use by the clergy and choir and is the setting for the daily Evensong service.