244, Southtown Road

This is a storekeeper's house dating to 1806, originally part of a naval arsenal designed by James Wyatt, and serving as the south lodge to the complex. It is now used as commercial offices. The building is constructed of red brick with a roof of graded Cumberland slate. It is two storeys high, with a two-window range on the west front and a three-window range on the east front. The west front features two tripartite sashes with 6/6 and 2/2 unhorned sashes beneath segmental relieving arches. Above are two 3/6 unhorned sashes under gauged skewback arches. The eaves are punctuated by a deep projecting cornice with modillions, continuous around the building and elaborated into pediments at the north and south gables. The roof is gabled with internal gable-end stacks, each featuring multiple flues with star tops. The east side has a half-glazed door beneath a plain fanlight, flanked by 6/6 horned sashes with gauged skewback arches. The first floor contains three 3/6 sashes, the left-hand one being horned, also under gauged skewback arches. The north gable has three blind windows on each floor.

The interior contains two principal rooms on the west front, with two smaller rooms at the rear, flanking a central entrance and stair hall. Original joinery remains, including panelled doors and moulded architraves. A closed-string staircase has stick balusters and a column newel.

The building was recorded as a storekeeper's house on a plan from 1810. The arsenal served the fleet anchored in Yarmouth Roads during the war with France (1793-1815), and originally included storehouses, a quay on the River Yare, and a small magazine. Following its conversion into Militia Barracks in the 1850s and subsequent purchase by Coleman's food manufacturers in the 1890s, the site underwent further alterations. During the Second World War, some of the original Napoleonic buildings, including storehouses and the magazine, were destroyed by bombing.