Clifton House

Clifton House is a large house with a long and complex history, initially built as two hall houses in the 13th and 14th centuries. It was rebuilt in parts during the 16th and 17th centuries, and then refronted in 1708, as evidenced by the date on a lead rainwater hopper. The house is constructed primarily of brick, with plain tiled roofs.

The 1708 elevation to Queen Street is two storeys high, arranged in seven bays. A doorcase is located in the second bay from the left, featuring barley-twist columns in antis with modified Corinthian capitals, a flat hood with guttae, and a segmental pediment above panelled doors. Small cellar windows are positioned to the right. The windows are sash windows with glazing bars, set within gauged skewback arches. A timber eaves cornice runs along the building beneath a hipped roof. A stack is situated to the right of the centre and on the south roof slope.

The north elevation, facing King's Staithe Lane, features a large, stepped external brick stack. The cornices continue around this elevation, and a short wing projects west along the lane, two storeys high. This wing has three sashes to the ground floor and six to the first floor, with the two eastern windows being taller. These windows have glazing bars and are under a gabled roof.

The south side of the house forms the north side of a courtyard. It features a panelled door to the right, four sashes to the ground floor, and five to the first floor, all with glazing bars, and is also under a gabled roof.

At the west end of the house stands a look-out tower, the last surviving late 16th-century example in King's Lynn. It is a fine example of 16th-century brickwork, exhibiting similarities in planning to late medieval solar towers in the region, such as that at Caistor in Norfolk. The tower has a square plan and five storeys, with a six-storey polygonal staircase tower attached to its south side. Each floor of the east and west elevations has one three-light casement window, all with pediments. A panelled door is set under a broken pediment on the east side of the tower. The newel of the staircase is constructed from a single ship's mast. Wall paintings are located in the third-floor room.

The interior contains a mid-14th century four-bay undercroft beneath Queen Street and King's Staithe Lane, supported by four central octagonal stone piers with moulded capitals, which carry flat brick rib vaults. A 13th-century door in the south wall opens into a room with a tiled 13th-century floor, the tiles decorated with patterns. The remains of a central hearth are also present. The staircase is likely from 1708, characterised by three twisted balusters per tread and carved tread-ends.