The Smokehouse

KINGS LYNN

610-1/0/10021 ST ANN'S STREET 05-JUN-09 True's Yard 5A The Smokehouse

II A mid C19 smokehouse, partly remodelled and in domestic use in the C20.

MATERIALS The building is constructed in red brick generally laid in English bond, with a pantile-covered gable roof.

EXTERIOR The north elevation has C20 fenestration and an added single storey range projects north. Two infilled ventilation slits to the smokehouse are apparent at the first floor of the east end. The south elevation is blind and at the rear corner of the building, the attached wall enclosing the southern boundary of True's Yard extends to the east. To the west, number 5a is physically attached to number 5 St Ann's Street, a building which has been assessed as not having special interest.

INTERIOR The interior has no interest apart from the smokehouse at the east end. A mezzanine floor supported by bridging beams, one encased, provided access to the fish racks at first floor, but the earlier access to the first floor has been obscured by later remodelling. At the ground floor, the base of the smokehouse has a blackened brick floor and an inserted ceiling of later date. At the first floor, the walls to the north, south and east are smoke-blackened. The ventilation slits on the north elevation are infilled with brick, but the wooden framing and one of the shutters survives. The roof structure comprises a smoke blackened ridge piece, collars and rafters.

SOURCES Karen Noel-Storr 'The buildings and past occupants of True's Yard fishing museum complex, King's Lynn, Norfolk'. Report supporting HLF bid, 2008.

HISTORY The smokehouse is located in an industrial outbuilding to the rear of number 5 St Ann's Street. From 1889, the smokehouse served the fishmonger business of Thomas Westwood who had a shop at number 3 St Ann's Street. The building was partly converted into residential use in the C20, but the smokehouse remained preserved at the east end of the building until rediscovery in the early C21. REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION The smokehouse at number 5a St Ann's Street is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons. * It is a significant survival of an increasingly rare building type. * It is largely intact, possessing key architectural features of a domestic smokehouse. * It is comparable with other domestic smokehouses designated in Grade II. * It relates specifically to the history of King's Lynn as a fishing port * It has Group Value with other related buildings