8-18, NORWICH ROAD (See details for further address information)

Terrace of six houses at 8-18 Norwich Road, Cromer (No.18 now divided horizontally as No.18 and No.2A Vicarage Road). Also known as St Margaret's Terrace. Built 1884-5 by architect E.J. May for the Bond Cabbell family of Cromer Hall. Red brick with plain tile roof.

The terrace is designed in the Queen Anne Revival style with attic gables to the outer houses and distinctive curving Dutch gables to the two central houses, which are slightly recessed behind the others. The building is two storeys with attic accommodation. Multiple tall brick chimney stacks rise throughout. The first floor features a continuous range of twelve windows. Each house has a two-storey canted bay window with tile-hung panels between the floors and a single sash window to the side; the left end bay is square and canted out at the corner. Windows are predominantly 4/1 sashes, though No.18 has UPVC replacements. The attic gables have triple 4/4 sashes to the outer four houses and double 4/4 sashes to the central pair. Flat-roofed dormers sit between the outer and inner gables. Entrances are set within round brick arches with part-glazed doors, except No.18. The entrance to No.8 at the right end is contained within a porch on the gable end. The rear elevations have wings with tall mansard-type half-hipped gables, French windows, 6/6 sashes, and tile-hung attics with paired 4/4 sashes.

The interiors inspected (Nos. 8, 10, 16 and 18) retain dog-leg staircases with turned newels and balusters. The houses contain three main fireplace designs. The first type has a reception room design with an eared wooden surround, a shelf on brackets above a tiled surround and cast-iron grate. The tiles in No.16 are in Japanese style with an unusual grate featuring a sunflower in a concave back. No.10 has blue and white tiles with a similar grate; No.18 lacks the shelf. The second design comprises a plain surround with a shelf on brackets and a curved top to the grate; those in Nos. 8 and 16 have boarded fronts while that in No.10 lacks a shelf. The third design features a cast-iron surround with pilasters, volutes, a central panel with an eight-point star and a curved top to the grate, found in Nos. 8, 10, 16 and 18. This uniformity suggests the houses were fitted out as part of an integrated project. All retain four-panel doors, moulded cornices and skirtings.

Edward John May (1853-1941) was an accomplished architect who had worked for Eden Nesfield and Norman Shaw before becoming architect to the Bedford Park estate in London following Shaw's recommendation and departure in 1879. May lived on the estate and designed numerous houses there in the early 1880s. Bedford Park was at the vanguard of the Queen Anne movement in London, attracting artists, writers and progressive families. Simultaneously, Cromer was establishing itself as a fashionable seaside resort. The Bond Cabbell family, planning to develop land from the late 1870s, engaged May's services. Documentary evidence from 1884-5 confirms May as architect to the Cromer Hall estate, with a specific reference in Cromer Urban District Council records dated 1 September 1884 to a letter from May regarding the proposed drainage of St Margaret's Terrace, then under construction. May designed this terrace concurrently with or shortly after designing houses in Bedford Park, and while similarities exist between the two projects, this terrace also demonstrates innovations. May subsequently designed Sutherland House in nearby Overstrand Road for the Barclay family a year or two later.

The terrace survives comparatively little altered externally and internally, retaining intact staircases, numerous fireplaces of varied designs, room layouts, doors and cornices. It represents a finely designed work by one of the leading architects of the Queen Anne movement, executed at the same period as his well-documented contributions to Bedford Park, which is recognised for its significance to this architectural movement.