Details
WISBECH MARKET PLACE
TF 4609
(West Side)
6/95 Nos. 23 and 24
(The Rose and Crown Inn)
GV II*
Early C17 coaching inn with original gallery now sealed to
courtyard, refronted in c.1857. Rendered timber frame at rear
and brick painted or stuccoed. Street elevation. Local amber
brick; with red plain tile roof, end stack to right hand. Three
storeys with basements and attics; seven 'bays', carriageway to
left hand. Six gabled dormer windows. Dentil cornice to
central pedimented parapet. Stone cornice band. Seven,
recessed, plain hung sash windows with plastered reveals and
stone cills, at second floor, and similar but larger first floor
windows. Rusticated, painted quoins at ground floor and band
with fanned key stones above carriageway. Wooden fluted
pilastered doorcase with double, panelled doors. Plastered
plinth. To rear of courtyard. Early C17 building over rear
carriageway, with second floor pedimented three light casement
window with 1601 in relief and trumpet and pheasant applied,
metal designs, and first floor pedimented cross-framed window.
Two early C19 hung sash windows with trefoiled heads to glazing
bars flank street carriageway, and similar window to rear range
west of courtyard. Interior, fine late C17 staircase not in
original position; closed string with moulded handrail, square
newels, and splat balusters, turned at first flight. Two
original gallery room doors. Ground floor room to right hand
with complete bolection moulded panelling and very fine mid C18
marble chimneypiece. Panelling to other rooms including long
room facing Market Place with original mid C19 interior. Second
floor rooms with chamfered beams suggest an original
multi-gabled C17 facade. Rear wing c.1930 Trumpet Hall has
classical interior with segmental arched ceiling. Vaults,
extensive but within curtilage of building, brick tunnel vaults
possibly with earlier material and original walls including a
small lamp niche and blind arches.
A.A. Oldham, Inns and Taverns of Wisbech, W. Ref. Lib, 1950.
Sam Smith (b.1802, d,1892) photographic collection, 1887,
W. & F. Mus.
Wisbech Society Annual Report, 1950.
A. Peckover (Watson's History of Wisbech), p.494, print, c.1850.
Gardiner, History of Wisbech, p.25, 1898.
Pevsner, Buildings of Englands, p.498.
VCH Cambs, p241.
Listing NGR: TF4614209706
