Bell Hotel
BELL HOTEL, KING STREET
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1195935
- Date first listed:
- 03-Apr-1951
- List Entry Name:
- Bell Hotel
- Statutory Address:
- BELL HOTEL, KING STREET
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2004-03-26
- Reference:
- IOE01/11946/22
- Rights:
- © Mr Peter Tree. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1195935
- Date first listed:
- 03-Apr-1951
- List Entry Name:
- Bell Hotel
- Statutory Address 1:
- BELL HOTEL, KING STREET
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- BELL HOTEL, KING STREET
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Norfolk
- District:
- Breckland (District Authority)
- Parish:
- Thetford
- National Grid Reference:
- TL 86924 83124
Details
THETFORD
TL8683 KING STREET 617-1/5/74 (South side) 03/04/51 Bell Hotel
II*
Coaching inn, now hotel. Mid C15 with C17 extensions and later alterations. Mid C15 main block facing King Street, C17 extensions to south. Rendered and colourwashed timber-frame. Machine tile roofs. North facade in 2 storeys, the upper floor jettied. Ground floor with heavy scantling studs on a brick and flint plinth. Corner braces to west support dragon beams. Carriage arch set to left now with C20 doors. To left a C19 cross casement, to right a late C19 canted bay window with sashes and four C18 6/6 sashes right of this. 7 sash windows to first floor, all with 8/8 glazing bars, except for centre 3 which have 6/6 glazing bars. Gabled roof, hipped to west, carrying 4 saw-toothed C19 ridge stacks. Rear of this wing faces inner courtyard. C19 extension through 2 storeys fitted with 3 mid C20 three-light cross casements. Later entrance to right. C17 wing of 2 storeys and dormer attic. Late C20 ground-floor passageway added to west facade. 2-light cross casements to first floor and two C20 windows. 5 hipped dormers, of which the 2nd and 5th from left are C20 additions. Gabled roof with ridge stack left of centre and a truncated internal gable-end stack to north. External junction of the 2 ranges filled with a C19 range of one-storey and dormer attic: C20 ground-floor fenestration and 2 through-eaves hipped dormers with casements. Gabled machine tile roof. INTERIOR: cellar with 2 re-used tie beams with hollow chamfers and roll and hollow fillets. Former carriage arch, now main pedestrian entrance, with engaged colonnettes with scalloped capitals rising to arched braces and wall arches. Internal arch with hollow chamfers, external one with knuckle braces. West of this is an external gallery, now internal following C19 extensions to courtyard: wall posts with arched braces support jetty with, at first floor, a formerly open gallery giving access to first-floor rooms. Ground-floor north range now the main bar. Very heavy scantling to timber-frame formerly with arched braces rising to bridging beams. South wall with 4-centred arch. Internal staircase is C20, external stairs now gone. First-floor west room with C16 wall-painting of arches, painted as a perspective exercise. Upper gallery with a fragment of exposed wattle and daub, the wattles tied with twisted grass string. Timber-frame with hollow-chamfered braces to tie beams. Main roof C20. C17 wing with spine beam decorated with sunk-quadrant mouldings and 2 fillets. Celebrated coaching inn first mentioned in 1493. Remained as a principal coaching inn on the London-Norwich post until 1845 (arrival of railway). (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North-west and South Norfolk: Harmondsworth: 1962-: 347).
Listing NGR: TL8692483124
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 384741
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: North West and South Norfolk, (1962), 347
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 25-Jun-2026 at 03:17:10.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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