29A,29B, QUEEN STREET

House dating to the early 17th century, refronted in the mid-18th century, located on Queen Street in King's Lynn. The building was used as District Council offices from 1950 to 1982, when it was divided into two separate properties.

The site is L-shaped and retains the plan of a medieval merchant house. An extensive warehouse range originally ran west from the north end towards the quay, with a three-storey warehouse range dated 1650 forming a narrow rear courtyard. The north warehouse range was demolished in 1982, leaving the 1650 west warehouse as a free-standing structure.

The front elevation to Queen Street is of red brick laid in English bond, with a tile roof. It comprises two storeys with a dormer attic across five bays, dating to the mid-18th century. The central panelled door sits within a doorcase with panelled reveals under an open pediment and fanlight, a late 18th-century replacement. Sash windows with glazing bars are set into early 18th-century flush frames with gauged skewback arches. An early 19th-century tripartite sash window with glazing bars sits above the door. The gabled roof has two gabled dormers. Seventeenth-century internal gable-end stacks remain visible.

The rear of the property is reached via a central passage from the front door. Rear doors are set within an early 19th-century gault brick porch extension. A seventeenth-century doorway with ovolo jambs and barred tongue stops survives, now within the building. The rear elevations are colourwashed. Notable features include a four-light transomed timber hall window on the north side of the cross wing and a pair of 18th-century sashes above and to the right, lighting the original solar, both with glazing bars.

The hall is entered directly from the rear of the passage. The dais window has wave-moulded jambs and mullions. A blocked four-light mullioned window sits high in the south wall. A sandstone chimneypiece in the west wall features a depressed basket arch and chamfered and tongue-stopped jambs. A closed-string staircase rises from the east end with moulded splat balusters, a moulded handrail, and square newels with ball finials. A similar straight flight rises to the right of the west fireplace to the former solar, now ending in a cupboard following the property's subdivision in 1982.

The plaster ceiling of the hall takes the form of two bulbous egg-shaped bosses within moulded oval fields. The ground floor front room retains early 18th-century panelling and an early 17th-century ovolo and hollow-moulded bridging beam. The entire first floor of the front range was originally a single room with the staircase opening directly into it at the south-west corner. Later partitioning created a corridor along the west side.

Early seventeenth-century small-framed masons' mitre panelling throughout was relocated as necessary during later partitioning. The north overmantel is enriched with two fielded panels with geometric patterning separated by three fluted pilaster strips. Sunk quadrant bridging beams with tongue stops remain. The roof of the front range comprises principals with two tiers of butt purlins and a ridge piece. The dormers occupy their original positions, though they have been renewed. The rear cross wing roof is similar but includes collars.

The solar wing is now entered through a doorway in a late 20th-century brick extension linking the original range to the warehouse to the west. The first-floor solar, now the principal room, is panelled throughout with early seventeenth-century small-framed masons' mitre panelling featuring a decorated arcade frieze. The principal bridging beam is emphasised by fluted pilasters within the panelling. A doorway to the left of the fireplace in the east wall conceals the original entrance point to the former solar stairs.