Medieval Merchant'S House

Medieval Merchant's House, King's Lynn

A late 14th-century hall house, substantially altered in the 15th century and considerably modified since. The building is arranged on an L-plan, with the hall range forming a rear wing to the north of a courtyard. It is constructed of brick with stone dressings, with plain tiled and slate roofs.

The front range facing King Street presents a seven-bay, two-storey facade of around 1830, built in yellow brick. The windows are sashes with glazing bars and gauged skewback arches. In the third bay from the left is a timber-framed passage to the rear; the front is marked by a timber lintel beneath a brick relieving arch, whilst the rear features an arched opening with chamfered detailing of 15th-century date. The present entrance to No. 9 is located in the bay to the north of this passageway: a panelled door within panelled reveals, surmounted by a six-vaned fanlight and round arch, with a gabled roof and internal gable-end stacks. A panelled door accessing No. 7 opens from the south-west end of the passageway.

The rear of the front range is whitewashed over the passage area and to the south. A window sits over the passage, with narrow windows lighting a 19th-century outshut to the south of No. 7.

The hall range has been remodelled in the 17th and 18th centuries into a two-storey, five-bay elevation. A central panelled door of late 17th-century date dominates: six-panelled and of plank construction within; it features a split overlight and gabled hood on brackets. The fenestration consists of late 18th-century sashes with glazing bars set within late 17th or early 18th-century flush frames. Stone jambs of the original entrance survive at the junction of the front and rear ranges, formerly opening directly into the west end of the hall. Stone jambs of a 15th-century dais window remain either side of two ground-floor west sashes. The gabled roofline changes above these windows, marked by a gabled dormer and a late 16th-century ridge stack on a stepped plinth.

Attached to the east end is a two-storey addition of early 18th-century date, constructed in brick with a slate roof. Its four-bay facade faces west, featuring late 18th-century sashes with glazing bars set within early 18th-century flush frames. A platband separates the storeys. A doorway to the right is sheltered beneath a 20th-century sloping hood. The roof is hipped.

Interior of No. 9

The hall range now contains three rooms at ground-floor level. The hall dais window displays moulded stone jambs of late 14th-century type, featuring keeled wave, bowtell and filleted wave mouldings. Immediately to its left is a cinquefoiled window with an ogee head and wave-moulded jambs. A large open fireplace at the west end of the room is an insertion with stone jambs and a renewed lintel. Chamfered bridging beams and rough-cut joists date from an early 17th-century floor insertion.

A room to the west of the hall retains complete late 17th-century large-framed bolection panelling, with H-L hinges to doors opening south-east (into the former hall) and north-east (into a 17th-century passageway and staircase). A panelled ante-room leads to the ground-floor room of the west addition, which features large-framed panelling of around 1730 and a shouldered overmantel panel above an inserted Greek key frieze.

An inserted 17th-century passage runs past the north side of the former hall, cut from the former courtyard serving the south side of No. 11, though two small courtyards remain in situ. A staircase at the north-west corner of the passage features a closed string, turned balusters, square newels and a moulded handrail, with a panelled dado. The front range facing the street contains early 19th-century panelling and associated details.

The room over the former hall retains large-framed early 18th-century panelling. Rooms to the west now constitute a late 20th-century flat, preserving hollow chamfered jambs of two late 14th-century windows in the former gable wall.

All roof structures were replaced in the early 16th century. The main front roof comprises common rafters with two tiers of butt purlins and collars on arched braces. Two complete trusses survive, forming three bays; the remainder are too altered to classify. The hall range roof features principals, collars, butt purlins and arched braces, with some of the latter replaced by cranked braces. The collars and principals are moulded; inserted stacks interrupt the truss system.

Interior of No. 7

The interior to the south of the carriageway is entirely of late 19th-century date, having been stripped out in the 20th century.

Historical Significance

This is an early example of the standard L-plan house favoured in King's Lynn from the Middle Ages until around 1600. The absence of timber-framing is probably the result of remodelling in the 15th and 16th centuries, and the building should not be assumed to be one of the earliest examples in Norfolk of entirely brick and stone construction.