1-5 St Edmunds Terrace

Reasons for Designation

1-5 St Edmunds Terrace is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * The design is careful and well considered, including decorative detail. The interior windows are an unusual feature, and may reflect the function of the cottages. * It forms part of an unusual ensemble of coastguard buildings, including officers' quarters and a third detached building, the Battery House, with which it has strong group value. * It is a reminder of the significant role played by the Coastguard Service in the maritime history that informs our island identity.

Details

KINGS LYNN

610-1/0/10014 CROSSBANK ROAD 03-AUG-09 1-5 St Edmunds Terrace

GV II Terrace of five cottages; 1883, some C20 additions; red brick with tiled roofs.

PLAN: A continuous run of cottages, of two storeys, with three projecting wings to the rear, back yards and a line of outhouses. Tall narrow chimney stacks straddle the ridge of the main hipped roof at either end, and between Nos.3 and 4.

EXTERIOR: The west elevation contains two pairs of gabled dormers to Nos. 1 and 2, and Nos. 3 and 4, and a single gabled dormer to No.5, with a window below each gable, its lintel set just above the line of the eaves. Each gable also contains a small square plaque with a pair of sunflowers in moulded brick. At either end of the terrace are flat roofed canted bay windows to Nos.1 and 5, both with egg and dart ornament below the cornice. A continuous band of alternating sunflower and leaf motifs runs below the first floor windows. The ground floor of each cottage has a single window and door with overlight; all doors and windows have cambered arches.

There are catslide roofs over the south and north elevations of Nos.1 and 5. The east elevation has a single storey wing projecting from the south end, one two storey wing shared between Nos.2 and 3, with gable end facing east, and a third two storey wing with hipped roof to No.4. No.3 has been extended across part of the yard between the house and the outhouse, No.4 has a small modern flat roofed extension, and No.5 also has a single storey extension. Except for windows set immediately under the eaves, all original windows and doors have cambered arches. Nos.3 and 4 retain most of their original casement windows.

The backyards are subdivided, with low walls between each cottage. The outhouses survive as a continuous block, slightly wider and taller at the north end. Windows and doors are modern. INTERIOR: The interiors of Nos.3 and 4 were inspected. No.4 retains its ground floor plan of one back and one front room connected by a half glazed door and casement window in the dividing wall; a plank door in the back room gives access to the understairs cupboard. Fireplaces survive, but not the original surrounds. The stairs rise from just inside the front door; at the top is a square four paned window between the landing and back room. There are two further rooms, one more to the back and one to the front. The doors are plain four panelled, and the windows retain some original latches. The plan and detail in No.3 are similar, except that the wall between the front and back rooms has been removed to create a single space. The internal landing window survives, as does the cast iron fireplace in the first floor front room and some original window latches. The fireplace in the south back room may survive, but is boarded over. Although not inspected, the attic of No.2 has been converted, so the first floor plan here will have been altered, but the ground floor is said to be intact.

The interiors of the outhouses do not retain original features.

HISTORY: Until 1856 there had been a small number of officers based in Kings Lynn fulfilling mainly customs duties. In 1875 plans were drawn up for a new coastguard station, now St Edmunds Terrace, and this was opened in 1883. This terrace of five cottages provided accommodation for the crew and their families, while 6 St Edmunds Terrace, immediately to the north, was apparently divided between officers' accommodation and a boathouse. The Old Battery House, the detached building at the south end of the terrace, seems to have functioned as a residential training college for young men from the surrounding area interested in a career at sea.

By 1922 the Kings Lynn Coastguard Station contained a detachment of only four men. In 1925 a new service, HM Coastguard was established and the station was closed and sold. The 1928 OS map shows the once communal back yard between cottages and outhouses already divided into individual yards. Since then there have been some minor extensions to the rear, and the windows to the front elevation of the terrace are uPVC replacements.

SOURCES: William Webb, Coastguard: an official history of HM Coastguard (1976).

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: 1-5 St Edmunds Terrace is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * The design is careful and well considered, including decorative detail. The interior windows are an unusual feature, and may reflect the function of the cottages. * It forms part of an unusual ensemble of coastguard buildings, including officers' quarters and a third detached building, the Battery House, with which it has strong group value. * It is a reminder of the significant role played by the Coastguard Service in the maritime history that informs our island identity.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

506353

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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