Summary
Former house, built in the late C18, converted to a temperance hotel in the mid-C19 and then to a restaurant and café in the mid-C20. Now (2024) a shop and café on the ground floor with living accommodation above.
Reasons for Designation
50, 50A and 50B Market Place, Swaffham, a late C18 former house, with later alterations as a temperance hotel in the mid-C19, a restaurant and café in the mid-C20, and a shop and café in the early C21, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as a late C18 former house which, with its later conversion to commercial use, contributes to the character of an architecturally varied historic streetscape.
Historic interest:
* for its use as a temperance hotel in the later C19 and early C20;
* for the contribution it makes to the evolution of the historic Market Place and the development of the town.
Group value:
* it has historic and functional group value with many other listed buildings ranged around the Market Place.
History
Swaffham’s significance in the medieval period stemmed from its position on the crossroads of the main routes from London, Norwich and King’s Lynn. The first written record of a market in the town, which was established on a triangular-shaped area formed by the convergence of the aforementioned roads, was in 1215 when King John issued a royal writ to the Sherriff of Norfolk to abolish it should it ‘damage the market in Dunham’. It was never abolished and expanded rapidly. The Market Place was probably open to the church on its east side, but later C17 development closed this off, while the development of The Shambles in the middle in the late C18/early C19, further reduced the size of the open space. From the mid-C18, for a period of just over a hundred years, Swaffham became one of the most populous parishes in Norfolk and one of the most fashionable centres in the county, attracting many leading West Norfolk Families. A racecourse had been established by 1628, the Assembly Rooms were constructed in 1776-1778, subsequently extended and modernised in 1817, and George Walpole, the Third Earl of Orford (1730-1791), founded a coursing club in 1786. During this period of prosperity, much rebuilding took place around the Market Place and the overall character of the town is primarily of mid-to-late Georgian in date, although there is evidence for C16-C17 work behind many façades. Further rebuilding also took place after ‘The Great Fire of Swaffham’, which probably started in the vicinity of the Blue Boar Inn (now the White Hart) on the afternoon of 14 November 1775, when it was set ablaze by a spark from a nearby blacksmith’s workshop. The fire soon engulfed the densely packed houses and workshops behind the inn and along London Road, with 22 buildings being completely destroyed and a further two badly damaged. The town continued to expand in the C19 when its population increased from 2,200 in 1800 to 3,350 in 1845. It also became an important local administrative centre during this period and acquired several notable buildings, including a National School (1838), Shire Hall (1839) and Corn Hall (1858).
50, 50A and 50B Market Place started life as a townhouse which was built in the late C18 on the corner of Market Place and Cley Road. During the first half of the C19, its ground floor was remodelled to accommodate two shops. By 1851, until the outbreak of the Second World War, the whole building was used as a temperance hotel, known as Walker’s Temperance Hotel from the 1890s and then Chapman’s Temperance Hotel from the 1910s/1920s. After the Second World War, the ground floor was remodelled as a restaurant and café, during which time mock timber framing was applied to the ground floor, while the upper floors were used as living accommodation. In the later C20, the ground floor was subdivided to create two retail units.
The building was previously listed as 48, 50, 50A and 50B Market Place.
Details
Former house, built in the late C18, with later alterations, including the remodelling of the ground floor to accommodate two shops in the early C19, a conversion to a temperance hotel in the mid-C19, with further remodelling as a restaurant and café after the Second World War. It is now (2024) a shop and café on the ground floor with living accommodation above.
MATERIALS: of rendered, roughcast and colourwashed brick and flint, the ground floor with mid-C20 mock timber framing, a pantile roof and brick stack.
EXTERIOR: the building is of two storeys plus attic in five bays, with three late C20 shop display windows to the ground floor, five six-over-six horned sashes with exposed sash boxes to the first floor, above which is a dentil cornice, and four flat-headed dormers with two-light casements with square-pane glazing to the attic, all of C20 date. The left-hand return to Cley Road has an off-centre left casement window to the first floor and an internal gable-end stack which was rebuilt in the C20. The rear wing was rebuilt in the late C20.
