Summary
A former late C17 town house, remodelled in the mid-C18, with C19, C20 and early C21 alterations. Now (2017) disused. At the rear, standing on the south side of a small courtyard, is a C19 outbuilding.
Reasons for Designation
Bank Chambers, a former town house of late C17 date, with mid-C18, C19, C20 and early C21 alterations, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* for its well-realised neoclassical façade which projects a robust and confident architectural statement across Tuesday Market Place;
* internally, it retains an accomplished mid-C17 interior design scheme which displays a high-level of craftsmanship in its carpentry;
* its early use of a double-pile plan firmly placed it in the vanguard of late C17 architectural fashion.
Historic interest:
* the early use of the double-pile plan and its well-crafted fixtures and fittings, along with its strategic location in the commercially important Tuesday Market Place, suggests that the house was occupied by a series of wealthy merchants who would have played a significant role in King's Lynn's development as a prosperous national port in the C17 and C18.
Group value:
* its has strong group value with the listed buildings on Tuesday Market Place.
History
King’s Lynn, first called Bishop’s Lynn, was founded in 1095 by Bishop Herbert de Losinga, who in the previous year had transferred the see from Thetford to Norwich. There was already an existing settlement which appears to have been based around a salt-water lagoon, or series of inlets, with its centre round the present All Saints Church. Losinga’s town developed to the north of this, between All Saints Church and Saturday Market Place where St Margaret’s Church and Priory were established from Norwich around 1100. Rapid expansion from the C12 onwards required an extension of the town, and Bishop William Turbe laid out a new settlement north of the Purfleet from around 1145, with its market at Tuesday Market Place and the Chapel of St Nicholas as a chapel of ease to St Margaret’s. Both settlements were united under a royal charter in 1204, the united town being named Bishop’s Lynn. Until the early C13, the Great Ouse emptied via the Wellstream at Wisbech, however following floods in the C13, the river was redirected to join the Wash at Bishop’s Lynn. The town became one of England’s busiest ports, serving the Ouse and its tributaries, exporting wool and cloth, and importing wine, timber and luxury goods, being adopted as a member of the original medieval Hanseatic League. This extremely influential trading association linked a group of towns around the Baltic and the North Seas, and played an important role in the prosperity and development of Bishop’s Lynn as a national port, which by the C14, was ranked as the third port of England (after London and Southampton).
Losinga’s town round the Saturday Market was protected from the river immediately to its west by the ‘great bank’, an earthwork which ran along the present line of Nelson Street, St Margaret’s Place and Queen Street. By about 1500 the river had moved approximately 50m west and was consolidated another 45m by the new South Quay in 1855. The period of development of the area between the Millfleet and Purfleet can therefore be identified, as well as building types and plans. The generous-sized plots are reflected in the surviving buildings dating from the C14 to the C17, which surround open courtyards. To the north, on Bishop Turbe’s ‘newe lande’, much the same pattern emerges: originally the west side of Tuesday Market Place was washed by the river, with King Street forming the line of the bank. The west side of King Street was built upon in the C13, with narrow plots, elongating in stages until river movement ceased in the C17. As land became available, warehouses were built straight onto the river front. When Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in 1536-1537, the town and manor became royal property, and Bishop’s Lynn was renamed King’s Lynn or Lynn Regis.
Lynn’s prosperity as a national port was based entirely on trade, and the merchant class dominated the social and economic life of the town until the C19. When the Fens began to be drained in the mid-C17 and land turned to agricultural use, King’s Lynn grew prosperous from the export of corn: cereal export dominated from the C16, and especially in the C18. Coal and wine continued to be imported for distribution inland, and until the railway age, Lynn was the chief East Anglian port for both. Prosperity continued until continental trade was disturbed by the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815), followed by a brief revival. The economy and population dwindled following the relatively late arrival of railway services to King’s Lynn in 1847, compounded by the irrevocable decline of coastal trading.
Bank Chambers is thought to have been built as a town house in the late C17, occupying a prominent position on the south side of the spacious and commercially important Tuesday Market Place. It was rebuilt in the 1730s/1740s with a double-pile main range, a rear staircase cross wing and a rear service wing. In the early C19 the façade was rebuilt, probably in relation to its then use as a commercial office. Alterations were undertaken in the later C19 and C20, while the interior was remodelled in the late C20, including the opening out of the ground floor, when it was occupied by Charles Hawkins and Sons, a local estate agents and auctioneers. In around 2008 it was refurbished and fitted out as a restaurant. Although the building is known as Bank Chambers, there is no known evidence to support its use as such a facility.
Details
A former late C17 town house, remodelled in the mid-C18, with C19, C20 and early C21 alterations. Now (2017) disused. At the rear, standing on the south side of a small courtyard, is a C19 outbuilding.
MATERIALS: it has an ashlar façade with brick rear elevations, brick stacks and plain tile roofs.
PLAN: the building stands on the south side of Tuesday Market Place and is formed of three distinct sections, including a double-pile range at the front, a rear staircase cross wing, both of three-storeys, and a two-storey service wing at the rear. The internal courtyard formed by the layout of the three ranges was covered with a glass roof in around 2008.
EXTERIOR: the principal elevation to Tuesday Market Place is a symmetrical composition of five bays and three storeys beneath a balustraded parapet. The central entrance has a C20 eight-panelled door flanked by Tuscan engaged columns while the ground-floor window bays are divided by Doric pilasters, all supporting a continuous frieze with triglyphs and guttae. Over the door is a triangular pediment. All the windows date from the C20, with one-over-one horned sashes on the ground floor, six-over-six horned sashes on the first floor and casements with square-paned glazing on the second floor. The upper floor windows all have eared architraves, while those on the first floor are also embellished with pulvinated friezes, hoods and bracketed sills.
At the rear is the former internal courtyard which was covered with a glass roof around 2008, thereby obscuring the ground floor. It is enclosed on its north, east and south sides by the double-pile range, the staircase wing and the service wing respectively, while the rear boundary wall with 22 Tuesday Market Place encloses the west side. The brick walling of the double-pile range, of which the ground floor was demolished in approximately 2008, and the staircase wing is laid in an irregular English bond up to the level of the second floor window sills (the first floor levels are also painted white), while the walling above is in Flemish bond. The double-pile range has single six-over-six horned sashes on each floor while the staircase wing has two identical sashes on each floor. The first floor windows all have timber lintels. The first floor of the two-storey service wing is of early C20 painted brick with a contemporary tripartite sash window. Its south and east walls are also largely of early C20 brick, incorporating some late C17 brickwork. Exposed on the east gable wall are two, narrow, blocked cupboard or stair windows with stone jambs. At the centre of the ground floor is an early C20 canted bay window overlooking a small courtyard to the east.
INTERIOR: the special interest is concentrated in the building's main range, with the rear service wing being of lesser interest.
The pedimented doorcase on Tuesday Market Place leads directly into a late C20 open-plan ground floor which occupies the whole of the double-pile range along with the former internal courtyard following the demolition of the ground-floor rear wall in approximately 2008. The fixtures and fittings to this open-plan section, excluding the C19 wooden panelling beneath the main windows, are largely of a late C20/early C21 date. This includes the suspended ceilings*, lighting units* and sculpted wall finishes*. Standing on the alignment of the original central corridor are two late C20 steel columns which now support the upper storeys following the removal of the partition walls. At the southern end of this former corridor are two short sections of truncated walling which indicate the position of the blocked mid-C18 doorway to the staircase wing. This wing is now entered by a late C20 six-panelled door which has been inserted into the partition wall to the left-hand side of the blocked mid-C18 doorway. Visible around this doorway are fragments of mid-C18 panelling.
In the staircase wing is a small room with a corner fireplace with a mid-C18 surround with eared stone piers beneath a broken flat pediment supported on acanthus brackets.
The ground floor of the former service wing at the rear was fitted out in the early C21 to accommodate a kitchen and a dining room and retains no fixtures and fittings of note. The original service stair has been replaced with a C19 dog-leg staircase with a closed-string with turned mirror balusters.
The principal stair-well in the staircase wing is clad with mid-C18 large-framed wood panelling with an egg and dart cornice below ovolo dentils. Its open-string staircase has two turned balusters with bobbins to each tread, along with a ramped and wreathed mahogany handrail. From the first-floor landing triangular pedimented doorcases with pulvinated friezes and eared architraves open to the right (north) and left (south) via six-panelled doors. A more modest straight-flight stair of an identical design continues to the second floor within a stairwell clad with large-framed wood panelling.
The two principal mid-C18 first-floor rooms are situated at the front of the building and were divided by a straight-flight staircase in the C19/C20. This was probably inserted in the position formerly occupied by closets and/or dressing rooms. The north-east corner room retains its mid-C18 large-framed wood panelling along with contemporary features including a dentilled cornice, hinged and panelled window shutters and a plain fire surround with bolection moulding. Two blocked doorways in the east wall suggest that the building was at one time linked with the neighbouring property. The panelling on the west wall also has a similar blocked doorway which probably provided access to a closet/dressing room in the position now occupied by the C19/C20 staircase. Set within the panelling to the right-hand side of the blocked doorway, within an enlarged closet/dressing room doorway, is a C20 six-panelled door which gives access to both the staircase and the north-west corner room. This room again retains its mid-C18 large-framed wood panelling along with contemporary hinged and panelled window shutters, window seats with panelled backs and a moulded cornice. The corner fireplace has a Regency style surround with ovolo moulded jambs and lintel with roundels in the corners. Set within the panelling on the east wall is a further blocked closet/dressing room doorway. Dividing this room from the rear room of the double-pile range, which was fitted with customer toilets* for restaurant use in approximately 2008, is a stud wall of a probable contemporary date.
At the rear of the staircase wing is a small room with small-framed wood panelling in a late C17 style. However, as the panelling appears to be contemporary with the other mid-C18 features, it may have been fitted in this style to suit a smaller and less formal bedchamber. In the corner is a chimneypiece with fluted pilasters.
The rear service wing, which originally comprised two rooms, was subdivided in the late C20 to create a third room. All three rooms contain no fixtures and fittings of note.
The second floor originally comprised two rooms at the front and two, possibly three, at the rear. In the early C21 the north-west corner room was subdivided with a stud wall while the rooms at the rear were remodelled with modern fittings*, which are not of special interest, to create a shower room, staff changing rooms and several toilets. In the western half of the former north-west corner room there is a blocked mid-C18 corner fireplace with an eared surround, while the eastern half contains no features of note. The north-east corner room has a plain mid-C18 fire surround with a moulded mantelshelf. The rear rooms contain no fixtures and fittings of note.
The attic retains clasped purlins, collars and rafters of probable mid-C18 date, along with C19 and C20 replacement timbers.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: a C19 single-storey outbuilding stands on the south side of the small courtyard that lies to the east of the former service wing. It is of painted brick with a mono-pitched roof covered with pantiles. At the centre of its north wall is a C19 two-light casement window with square-paned glazing. Standing to its left is a C20 plank and batten door and to its right is a shallow porch with an early C21 wooden sliding door. This structure contributes to the special interest of the principal building and is included in the listing.
* Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that these aforementioned features are not of special architectural or historic interest.
