Strangers Hall Museum

Strangers Hall Museum

Former houses and shops now serving as a museum, occupying a complex site in Norwich dating from the 14th century onwards.

The street range is of early 16th-century date, consisting of two storeys with a jettied first floor. The ground floor is built of flint rubble, rendered, with a timber frame first floor above. The roof is pantiled. The seven first-floor windows include three 18th-century sash windows with glazing bars and four 17th-century mullion and transom windows. At ground level are 20th-century display windows, two sash windows, and a carriage entry to the right. To the left is a passage entry with a timber doorway featuring roll-moulded jambs, a pierced fanlight, and a hood supported on carved consoles. An inner door is dated 1621. Strapwork carving on the fascia covering the jetty bears the date 1621. The building has a simple box cornice.

Beneath the right-hand half of the street range is an undercroft of brick construction, with a pointed barrel-vault profile running parallel to the street line and a side chamber away from the street. The original entry to the right of the chamber, marked by four stone steps, is now blocked, as is a blocked doorway in the east wall.

The hall range represents 14th, 15th, and 16th-century phases of construction and alteration. Built of flint rubble with stone and brick dressings, with rendered timber-frame to the top floor on the north wall of the north arm, the hall range has an L-shaped plan away from the street line. It comprises a two-bay open hall and a two-storey service end with cellars running parallel to the street, all beneath pantile roofs.

On the south side is a full-height 16th-century oriel window with moulded stone tracery. To the right of the oriel stands a brick-built stair turret featuring mullion and transom windows and a carved timber fascia dated 1627. The central door has stone jambs, a flat arch, and a hood.

A later 15th-century north door at the east end is approached by steps and has a pointed stone arch with moulded jambs. Additional mouldings were applied when a vaulted porch was added. Two further 15th-century service doors have stone jambs and four-centre moulded arches. In the south wall opposite the north door is an earlier 15th-century doorway with a four-centre moulded arch. Part of a re-used 16th-century timber screen with linen-fold and heraldic carving survives inside the north door.

The hall itself features a two-bay crown-post roof with plaster at collar and brace level and brattishing on the wall-plate. The carved spandrels bear Nicholas Sotherton's merchant mark, dated 1530.

A three-storey north arm was built over a 14th-century three-bay undercroft that extends beneath the hall. This undercroft has stone diagonal and cross ribs springing from wall piers, with the original entry from the east wall of the centre bay. A 16th-century north doorway leads to a passageway created in the 20th century using a partly remade 16th-century frieze window. To the east of the window is a four-centre arch with hollow chamfered bricks and hood mould. The north arm has two mullion and transom windows with leaded lights on each floor and a stair turret in the angle.

A fireplace on the first floor of the north range features fluted stone jambs and a four-centre opening with painted shields, one bearing the initials of Joseph Paine. A remade but incomplete fireplace on the second floor has similar detailing.

A block to the south-west of the hall dates to the late 15th century and was rebuilt in the early 16th century. Built of flint with brick dressings and a pantile roof, it is two storeys high, constructed over a 15th-century cellar. It comprises three bays with a single-storey left-side extension having one mullion and transom window. Tall ground-floor sash windows with glazing bars and brick surrounds are present, with 20th-century mullion and transom windows with leaded lights at first floor. Large blocked 16th-century windows appear on the east wall.

The ground-floor room retains 1748 panelling and a fireplace with an ornate overmantel containing a painting. It has a simple cornice and plaster ceiling below a fine 16th-century timber ceiling with roll-moulded beams and joists. The first floor incorporates partly re-used 17th-century panelling and a Jacobean fireplace with tapering fluted pilasters and a four-centre stone opening with two painted overmantel panels. The date 1659 appears on one of the spandrel shields. A stair turret in the angle with the open hall was extended north by one bay in the 17th century.

The centre rear of the street range dates to the later 16th century and is built of flint with brick dressings at ground level and timber frame at first floor, with a pantile roof. Running at right-angles to the street range, it is two storeys with a jetty at first floor. It features two mullion and transom windows at first floor and one nine-light frieze window on the ground floor in a brick opening. The bressumer has billet moulding with timber framing above, restored in the 20th century. The ground-floor ceiling has heavily moulded beams and joists, and there is a large stack with a carved timber bressumer. This range was incorporated into the north range of the hall in the 20th century.

Beyond the extreme left of the street range is a further block running back from the street line. Dating to the 15th century with later alterations, it is built of flint and brick dressings with a pantile roof and two storeys. It has three widely spaced first-floor windows, a 20th-century door to the right, and a pair of partly glazed doors to the left. A central casement window and three mullion and transom windows with side-hung lights occupy the first floor. In the later 15th century, part of this range was incorporated into the hall block as service rooms. In the early 17th century, the range was widened westwards. The 17th-century facade is of brick with six-light mullion and transom windows at ground and first floor (the left-hand light blocked by the 1627 stair turret), a pantile roof with dormer, and partly remade 17th-century panelling at first floor.

A parish boundary plate dated 1829 is mounted on the street range.

The building was scheduled as a county monument numbered NF9 in 1923 but was de-scheduled in 1997.