Tudor Rose Hotel

The Tudor Rose Hotel comprises two adjoined historic houses: Number 10 St Nicholas Street, built in the mid-15th century, and Number 11 (formerly 28 St Ann's Street and later St Nicholas' House), built in the 16th century, rebuilt in 1645 and re-fronted in the mid-18th century.

Number 10 is timber-framed with brick infill, having brick and carstone to the rear projection. Number 11 has red-brick walls laid in Flemish bond. Both houses have pantiled roofs.

Number 10 is constructed on an L-plan, having a narrow two-storey range facing south to St Nicholas Street, and a perpendicular cross-wing running north, originally containing the hall range. To the east, Number 11 is double-pile in plan. A 1970s extension is attached to the east elevation of Number 11, filling the corner of St Nicholas Street and St Ann's Street.

Number 10 is two storeys in height and roughly four bays in width. The ground floor of the front (south) elevation is rendered and colour washed, and the first floor is jettied, having close-studded timber framing with brick infill. The left bay of the ground floor has a four-centred chamfered stone arch with chamfered reveals, containing an oak plank door with four stiles dividing five vertical panels, each with a carved tracery arch of the proto-Perpendicular type current in advanced ecclesiastical architecture of around 1345. The door is flanked on either side by an engaged Tuscan column; a cornice shown in historic photographs and drawings was removed around 1960. To the right of the door is a sash window with eight-over-eight panes, and right of this a small casement and a doorway introduced after 1924. The doorway has a four-centred timber arch, and three-light mullioned window to the left, unified under a single hood moulding. The first floor of the front elevation is jettied, with close-studded timber framing and brick infill. There are five renovated two-light cross casements with leaded lights of early 17th century origins, grouped in two pairs to the left end with the last isolated to the right end, lighting the early-17th century timber-framed connecting gallery, the last known to survive in Lynn.

The roofs of Number 10 and the connecting gallery are pitched, that of the connecting gallery being lower. The cross wing to the rear is two storeys in height, and contains the hall range. The roof is pitched, with a reconstructed ridge stack near the centre; a chimneystack on the north gable was removed in the 1970s. The west elevation has one four-light transomed ovolo-moulded cross casement to the ground floor and two similar windows to the first floor; towards the south end is a three-light mullioned window. The ground floor of the east elevation is dominated by a five-light transomed ovolo-moulded cross casement with a hood moulding, and a similar two-light window to its right. The first floor is lit by a tripartite late-18th century sash window with glazing bars and a two-light mullioned casement to its right, both with ashlar surrounds. The north elevation shows evidence of door and chimneystack openings, representing a former link to St Ann's House which was dismantled between 1914 and 1916 and transported to America.

Number 11 was constructed to the east of Number 10 in the 16th century, rebuilt on a double-piled plan in 1645, and re-fronted to St Nicholas Street in the mid-18th century. Number 11 is two-and-a-half storeys in height, with five symmetrical bays, and 1970s dormer windows to the pitched pantiled roof. The front (south) elevation is composed of red brick laid in Flemish bond, over a brick plinth course, with a three-course platband over the ground floor. The front elevation has a blocked door opening to the central bay, blocked around 1925, retaining a boot-scrape recess to the right of the door, and a blind window opening over the door. The four-pane sash windows are mid-19th century, re-using 18th century boxes.

The rear pile is also two-and-a-half storeys in height, arranged in six irregular bays. The westernmost bay of the first floor was originally single-storey in height: the first floor and attic storey were infilled in the early 1970s, and three flat-roofed attic dormers added at the same time. The roof is pantiled, the roof pitch of the western half (to the rear of Number 10 and the connecting gallery) being lower. The ground floor has one 20th century glazed door, two 19th century sashes with glazing bars, and one 19th century three-light casement. The first floor is lit by six mid-17th century two-light cross casements, that to the west bay being a later addition. The Dutch east gable has prominent kneelers and an open pediment, dated 1645. A stepped gable-end stack rises out of the pediment. A two-storey extension was added to the east elevation of Number 11 in the 1970s, bracing the corner of St Nicholas Street and St Ann's Street, and is constructed of red brick with an integral carriage arch.

The ground-floor west room of Number 10 has a multiple hollow-moulded bridging beam, plain joists, and late-20th century panelling dated 1986. The cross wing, formerly containing the hall, has an inserted early 16th century stack at the south end; the fireplace has double roll-moulded stone jambs and a similarly decorated timber bressumer. Immediately east of the fireplace, there are two arches of a former screens passage, one of which is readily apparent; the screens passage was obscured by the abutting 1645 structure. A fireplace on the north wall retains ashlar quoins and a timber lintel, though the chimneystack has been dismantled.

The front first-floor room of Number 10 has three crown-post trusses, with cambered ties supporting square-section crown posts, dropping arched braces from ties to posts, and arched braces from posts to crown purlin. The east wall bears a chimneystack and carved stone fire surround, having a roll-moulded bressumer and jambs, with a blocked window opening to the north of the fireplace. A door south of the fireplace appears to be early 17th century in date, and provides access to the 17th century gallery, reputedly the last 17th century gallery to survive in Lynn. The gallery has a central canted tie beam and 13 pegged collars supporting a pantiled roof; the door at the east end is blocked. The open court to the north of the gallery was infilled with staff accommodation in the 1970s, extending east into the attic of Number 11, with dormers introduced to the north and south slopes. The first floor of the rear cross wing is largely of 19th century character.

Within Number 11 the ground floor reception room has a chamfered bridging beam, aligned north-south, off-centre towards the west, and a finely-detailed 18th century cornice to the eastern section. The north wall has a 19th century fireplace, with a niche to the left and a doorway to the right to the stair hall. The east wall has a tall round arch at the south end, apparently a blocked opening to the east room, now a bedroom. The rear pile has an L-shaped room, now a bedroom, to the west of the stair hall, having an ornately carved beam with ovolo mouldings, and a fireplace on its east wall. The stair hall contains an 18th century stair with a panelled balustrade, which appears to have been relocated or reconfigured around 1925. To the east of the stair, the former kitchen, now sub-divided as a bedroom and corridor, retains early reeded joists likely dating to the construction of the rear pile in 1645. The first floor room over the reception room has an ornately-carved bridging beam with sunk quadrant mouldings.

A red-brick boundary wall is attached to the north elevation of the cross-wing, and extends east to St Ann's Street, enclosing the rear yard.