4,5 And 6, St Gregory'S Alley

Three houses converted to shops in the early 20th century, located on the west side of St Gregory's Alley in Norwich. Nos. 5 and 6 date from the early 17th century, while No. 4 was built around 1830.

No. 4 is constructed of gault brick laid in Flemish bond with a gabled roof clad in black-glazed pantiles. No. 5 shares the same external appearance and roof as No. 4, though its interior reveals a timber frame to the upper floors. No. 6 features timber-framed construction to the upper floors, rendered and colour-washed, with a gabled red pantiled roof.

Originally, each building had a side entrance from the street leading to a hallway and staircase serving the upper floors. Refronting in the early 19th century and conversion to shops in the early 20th century has obliterated this plan for Nos. 4 and 5, though No. 6 retains its independent side entry to the north of the display window.

The east elevation of Nos. 4 and 5 facing St Gregory's Alley comprises three storeys with three window bays and two 20th-century shop display windows. No. 4's display window dates from around 1910 and features a central glazed door recessed behind curved plate-glass windows with thin circular mullions, tiled stallrisers, and a canopy box carried on pilasters. The display window to No. 5 was replaced in the late 1970s with three plate-glass windows and a half-glazed door recessed to the left. The upper two floors of No. 4 are lit by one early 20th-century two-light casement to each storey, both under rendered gauged skewback arches, with a prominent plain fascia board below the gabled roof. No. 5 has two unhorned 6/6 early 19th-century sash windows to the first floor under painted gauged skewback arches, and two bottom-hung late 20th-century casements to the second floor, also with painted skewback arches. A moulded fascia board sits below the gabled roof. A single-storey late 20th-century extension has been constructed to the rear of No. 5.

No. 6 comprises three storeys with two window bays. The ground floor contains a 1970s plate-glass shop display window with panelled stallrisers and a half-glazed door, alongside a mid-18th-century six-panelled arched door with two leaves and two-light overlight. The jettied first floor has a moulded bressumer and is lit through two mid-20th-century two-light casement windows with glazing bars. The second floor is similarly jettied with two comparable mid-20th-century casements. The rear west elevation features a two-storey cross wing to the north enclosing a small yard. A 20th-century single-storey extension under a raking pantiled roof is attached to the rear elevation, with a three-light early 19th-century casement above it in the brick rear wall of the front range.

Internally, the ground floor of No. 4 has been opened into a single retail space with the floor above supported on rolled steel joists and a late 20th-century open ladder staircase to the upper floors. No. 5 has an open retail space on the ground floor with late 20th-century staff rooms to the rear. Two plain bridging beams run east to west, with access to the upper floors via a winder staircase to the south. The two upper floors retain the early 17th-century timber frame exposed to the west, north and south walls, with arched braces and chamfered bridging beams. No. 6's ground floor has similarly been opened out for retail use, with the fire opening and former doorway in the south wall removed in the 1990s. The frame visible on the upper two floors retains two arched braces and mortise holes for several more, though the division into separate rooms has been abolished.

St Gregory's Alley is one of Norwich's oldest thoroughfares, situated close to the medieval street patterns that remain recognisable today. The layout of these three plots was likely established in an early period, possibly before the Norman Conquest, though they have undergone reconstructions since. Norwich developed as the gradual amalgamation of four original settlements beside the River Wensum, a process complete by the time of the Conquest. Following the construction of the cathedral and castle around 1094, the city expanded rapidly. It remained largely confined within the early 14th-century city walls, which have the greatest length of any English town including London, until systematic expansion began in the late 18th century. The 14th-century fabric of St Gregory's church lies only four metres from the east elevation of Nos. 4, 5 and 6. Both Nos. 5 and 6 are timber-framed 17th-century houses; No. 5 received a gault-brick façade in the early 19th century when No. 4 was rebuilt.