The Rose And Crown Inn

WISBECH MARKET PLACE TF 4609 (West Side) 6/95 Nos. 23 and 24 (The Rose and Crown Inn) GV II*

Early C17 coaching inn with original gallery now sealed to courtyard, refronted in c.1857. Rendered timber frame at rear and brick painted or stuccoed. Street elevation. Local amber brick; with red plain tile roof, end stack to right hand. Three storeys with basements and attics; seven 'bays', carriageway to left hand. Six gabled dormer windows. Dentil cornice to central pedimented parapet. Stone cornice band. Seven, recessed, plain hung sash windows with plastered reveals and stone cills, at second floor, and similar but larger first floor windows. Rusticated, painted quoins at ground floor and band with fanned key stones above carriageway. Wooden fluted pilastered doorcase with double, panelled doors. Plastered plinth. To rear of courtyard. Early C17 building over rear carriageway, with second floor pedimented three light casement window with 1601 in relief and trumpet and pheasant applied, metal designs, and first floor pedimented cross-framed window. Two early C19 hung sash windows with trefoiled heads to glazing bars flank street carriageway, and similar window to rear range west of courtyard. Interior, fine late C17 staircase not in original position; closed string with moulded handrail, square newels, and splat balusters, turned at first flight. Two original gallery room doors. Ground floor room to right hand with complete bolection moulded panelling and very fine mid C18 marble chimneypiece. Panelling to other rooms including long room facing Market Place with original mid C19 interior. Second floor rooms with chamfered beams suggest an original multi-gabled C17 facade. Rear wing c.1930 Trumpet Hall has classical interior with segmental arched ceiling. Vaults, extensive but within curtilage of building, brick tunnel vaults possibly with earlier material and original walls including a small lamp niche and blind arches. A.A. Oldham, Inns and Taverns of Wisbech, W. Ref. Lib, 1950. Sam Smith (b.1802, d,1892) photographic collection, 1887, W. & F. Mus. Wisbech Society Annual Report, 1950. A. Peckover (Watson's History of Wisbech), p.494, print, c.1850. Gardiner, History of Wisbech, p.25, 1898. Pevsner, Buildings of Englands, p.498. VCH Cambs, p241.

Listing NGR: TF4614209706