Strangers Hall Museum

Details

TG 2208 NE CHARING CROSS
15/154 (south side)
26.2.54 No 6 (Strangers Hall Museum)
GV I
Former houses and shops now museum. C14 onwards. Street range:- Early C16
flint rubble ground floor, rendered timber frame first floor. Brick rear
extension. Pantile roofs. 2 storeys, first floor jettied. 7 first floor
windows. C20 display windows at ground floor with 2 sash windows and
carriage entry to right. Passage entry to left with timber doorway having
roll-moulded jambs, pierced fanlight and hood supported on carved consoles.
Inner door dated 1621. Strapwork carving on fascia covering jetty with the
date 1621. 3 C18 sash windows with glazing bars and 4 C17 mullion and
transom windows at first floor. Simple box cornice. Undercroft beneath
right hand half of building:- Brick. Pointed barrel-vault profile parallel
to street line with side chamber away from street. Original entry to right
of chamber with 4 stone steps, now blocked. Blocked doorway in east wall.
Hall range:- C14 C15 and C16 alterations. Flint rubble with stone and brick
dressings. Rendered timber-frame to top floor, north wall of north arm.
Pantile roofs. L-shape plan away from street line. 2-bay open hall and
2-storey service end with cellars parallel to street. C16 full height oriel
window with moulded stone tracery on south side. Brick built stair turret
to the right of the oriel having mullion and transom windows and a carved
timber fascia with the date 1627. Central door with stone jambs, flat arch
and hood. Later C15 north door at east end approached by steps. Pointed
stone arch with moulded jambs. Additional mouldings applied when the vaulted
porch was added. 2 later C15 service doors with stone jambs and 4-centre
moulded arches. Opposite the north door in the south wall is an earlier
C15 doorway with 4-centre moulded arch. Part of a re-used C16 timber screen
with linen-fold and heraldic carving inside north door. 2-bay crown-post
roof plastered at collar and brace level. Brattishing on wall-plate. Carved
spandrels with Nicholas Sotherton's merchant mark (1530). 3-storey north
arm built over a C14 3 bay undercroft that extends beneath the hall. The
undercroft has stone diagonal and cross ribs springing from wall piers.
The original entry was from the east wall of the centre bay. C16 north
doorway leading to a passage-way created in the C20 and using a partly
re-made C16 frieze window. To the east of the window is a 4-centre arch
with hollow chamfered bricks and hood mould. 2 mullion and transom windows
on each floor with leaded lights. Stair turret in the angle. Fireplace on
first floor of north range having fluted stone jambs and a 4-centre opening
with painted shields, one bearing the initials of Joseph Paine. Remade and
incomplete fireplace on the second floor with similar detail. Block south-west
of hall:- Late C15, rebuilt early. C16. Flint with brick dressings. Pantile
roof. 2 storeys built over C15 cellar. 3 bays with single-storey left-side
extension with one mullion and transom window. Tall ground floor sash windows
with glazing bars and brick surrounds. C20 mullion and transom windows with
leaded lights at first floor. Large blocked C16 windows on east wall. The
ground floor room has 1748 panelling and fireplace with ornate overmantel
containing painting. Simple cornice and plaster ceiling below fine C16
timber ceiling with roll-moulded beams and joists. The first floor has
partly re-used C17 panelling. Jacobean fireplace with tapering fluted
pilasters and a 4-centre stone opening with 2 painted overmantel panels.
The date of 1659 is on one of the Spandrel shields. In the angle with the
open hall is a stair turret extended north by one bay in the C17. These
two blocks were incorporated into the hall range in the Cl7. Parish boundary
plate 1829 on street range.
Centre rear of street range:- Later C16 Flint with brick dressings
ground floor. Timber frame first floor. Pantile roof. At right-angles to
street range. 2 storeys. Jetty at first floor. 2 mullion and transom
windows at first floor. One 9-light frieze window on ground floor in
brick opening. Bressumer with billet moulding and timber framing above
restored in C20. Ground floor ceiling with heavily moulded beams and
joists. Large stack with carved timber bressumer. This range was
incorporated into the north range of the hall in the C20. Beyond the
extreme left of the street range is a block running back from and
away from the street line:- C15 with later alterations. Flint and brick
dressings. Pantile roof. 2 storeys. 3 widely spaced first-floor windows.
Right-hand C20 door. Pair of partly glazed doors to left. Central
casement window. 3 mullion and transom windows with side hung lights
at first floor. In the later C15 part of this range was incorporated
into the hall block as the service rooms: Beyond these to the south,
in the early C17, the range was widened westwards:- The C17 facade
being:- Brick with 6-light mullion and transom windows at ground and
first floor, the left-hand light blocked by 1627 stair turret. Pantile
roof with dormer. Partly remade C17 panelling at first floor. The building was scheduled as county number NF9 in 1923 but was de-scheduled in 1997. R. Smith and A. Carter, "Function and Site: Aspects of Norwich Buildings" Vernacular Architecture, Vol. 14, 1983.


Listing NGR: TG2289208726

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

228900

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Vernacular Architecture Group Report in Vernacular Architecture Group Report, Vol. 14, (1983)

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.