Bell Hotel

THETFORD

TL8683 KING STREET 617-1/5/74 (South side) 03/04/51 Bell Hotel

II*

Coaching inn, now hotel. Mid C15 with C17 extensions and later alterations. Mid C15 main block facing King Street, C17 extensions to south. Rendered and colourwashed timber-frame. Machine tile roofs. North facade in 2 storeys, the upper floor jettied. Ground floor with heavy scantling studs on a brick and flint plinth. Corner braces to west support dragon beams. Carriage arch set to left now with C20 doors. To left a C19 cross casement, to right a late C19 canted bay window with sashes and four C18 6/6 sashes right of this. 7 sash windows to first floor, all with 8/8 glazing bars, except for centre 3 which have 6/6 glazing bars. Gabled roof, hipped to west, carrying 4 saw-toothed C19 ridge stacks. Rear of this wing faces inner courtyard. C19 extension through 2 storeys fitted with 3 mid C20 three-light cross casements. Later entrance to right. C17 wing of 2 storeys and dormer attic. Late C20 ground-floor passageway added to west facade. 2-light cross casements to first floor and two C20 windows. 5 hipped dormers, of which the 2nd and 5th from left are C20 additions. Gabled roof with ridge stack left of centre and a truncated internal gable-end stack to north. External junction of the 2 ranges filled with a C19 range of one-storey and dormer attic: C20 ground-floor fenestration and 2 through-eaves hipped dormers with casements. Gabled machine tile roof. INTERIOR: cellar with 2 re-used tie beams with hollow chamfers and roll and hollow fillets. Former carriage arch, now main pedestrian entrance, with engaged colonnettes with scalloped capitals rising to arched braces and wall arches. Internal arch with hollow chamfers, external one with knuckle braces. West of this is an external gallery, now internal following C19 extensions to courtyard: wall posts with arched braces support jetty with, at first floor, a formerly open gallery giving access to first-floor rooms. Ground-floor north range now the main bar. Very heavy scantling to timber-frame formerly with arched braces rising to bridging beams. South wall with 4-centred arch. Internal staircase is C20, external stairs now gone. First-floor west room with C16 wall-painting of arches, painted as a perspective exercise. Upper gallery with a fragment of exposed wattle and daub, the wattles tied with twisted grass string. Timber-frame with hollow-chamfered braces to tie beams. Main roof C20. C17 wing with spine beam decorated with sunk-quadrant mouldings and 2 fillets. Celebrated coaching inn first mentioned in 1493. Remained as a principal coaching inn on the London-Norwich post until 1845 (arrival of railway). (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North-west and South Norfolk: Harmondsworth: 1962-: 347).

Listing NGR: TL8692483124