1-5 St Edmunds Terrace

A terrace of five cottages built in 1883 in red brick with tiled roofs, located in Kings Lynn. The building served as accommodation for the crew and families of the newly established coastguard station, with some 20th-century additions.

The terrace is two storeys high, running in a continuous line with three projecting wings to the rear, back yards, and a line of outhouses. Tall narrow chimney stacks straddle the ridge of the main hipped roof at either end and between Nos. 3 and 4.

The west elevation displays careful decorative detailing. Nos. 1 and 2 have two pairs of gabled dormers, Nos. 3 and 4 have two pairs of gabled dormers, and No. 5 has a single gabled dormer, each with a window below the gable whose lintel is set just above the eaves line. Each gable contains a small square plaque with a pair of sunflowers in moulded brick. At either end, Nos. 1 and 5 are topped with flat roofed canted bay windows decorated with egg and dart ornament below the cornice. A continuous band of alternating sunflower and leaf motifs runs below the first floor windows. The ground floor of each cottage has a single window and door with overlight; all doors and windows have cambered arches.

Catslide roofs cover the south and north elevations of Nos. 1 and 5. The east elevation features a single storey wing projecting from the south end, a two storey wing shared between Nos. 2 and 3 with gable end facing east, and a two storey wing with hipped roof to No. 4. No. 3 has been extended across part of the yard between house and outhouse, No. 4 has a small modern flat roofed extension, and No. 5 has a single storey extension. Windows and doors have cambered arches except where set immediately under the eaves; Nos. 3 and 4 retain most of their original casement windows.

Back yards are subdivided by low walls between each cottage. The outhouses survive as a continuous block, slightly wider and taller at the north end, with modern windows and doors.

The interiors of Nos. 3 and 4 were inspected. No. 4 retains its original ground floor plan of one back and one front room connected by a half glazed door and casement window in the dividing wall. A plank door in the back room gives access to an understairs cupboard. Fireplaces survive though original surrounds are missing. The stairs rise from just inside the front door; at the top is a square four paned window between the landing and back room. Two further rooms occupy the first floor, one to the back and one to the front. The doors are plain four panelled, and some original window latches survive. No. 3 has a similar plan and detail, except the wall between front and back rooms has been removed to create a single space. The internal landing window survives, as does the cast iron fireplace in the first floor front room and some original window latches. The fireplace in the south back room may survive but is boarded over. The attic of No. 2 has been converted, so the first floor plan will have been altered, though the ground floor is said to be intact. The interiors of the outhouses do not retain original features.

In 1875 plans were drawn up for a new coastguard station at Kings Lynn, which opened in 1883. Until 1856 only a small number of customs officers had been based there. This terrace of five cottages provided accommodation for the crew and their families. The building immediately to the north, 6 St Edmunds Terrace, was apparently divided between officers' accommodation and a boathouse. The Old Battery House, a detached building at the south end of the terrace, functioned as a residential training college for young men from the surrounding area interested in a career at sea.

By 1922 the Kings Lynn Coastguard Station contained only four men. In 1925 HM Coastguard was established as a new service and the station was closed and sold. The 1928 Ordnance Survey map shows the once communal back yard between cottages and outhouses already divided into individual yards. Minor extensions have been added to the rear since then, and the windows to the front elevation have been replaced with uPVC.