Summary
Commercial premises and private dwelling, built in 1856 by George Cubitt, local ironmonger and industrialist.
Reasons for Designation
Bank House and 2 and 4 King’s Arms Street, built in 1856 by George Cubitt, local ironmonger and industrialist, are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* for the architectural quality, proportions and detailing of the commercial range fronting King’s Arms Street and the attached private dwelling later known as Bank House to the rear;
* for the high proportion of survival of cast-iron decoration most probably manufactured by Cubitt’s own foundry, including a cast-iron cresting to the first-floor porch window of Bank House, the balusters of its elegant stair, and the large ceiling rose in the sitting room;
* Bank House is particularly well-preserved both internally and externally and retains a high proportion of its original fixtures and joinery.
Historic interest:
* for the contribution this historic commercial premises and its attached dwelling make to the evolution of commercial buildings in the historic town of North Walsham.
Group value:
* the commercial building has a strong visual relationship with other listed commercial buildings on King’s Arms Street and Market Place, including the neighbouring 23 and 24 Market Place (Grade II), and the King’s Arms Hotel and 21 and 22 Market Place directly opposite (each listed at Grade II).
History
The settlement of (North) Walsham was owned by the Abbey of St Benet at Holme by the early C11 and was recorded in the Domesday survey (1086). The town had an established market by 1275, helped by the local wool trade, especially following the arrival of Flemish weavers in the C14. Lightweight ‘Walsham’ cloth reflects the town’s significant position in the wool and weaving industry. The large size of the medieval parish church of St Nicholas expresses some of the prosperity derived from the trade. Much of the town’s medieval fabric was destroyed by fire in the summer of 1600, including 118 houses, 70 shops and warehouses, and even more barns, stables, malthouses and outhouses. The town changed in the reconstruction, with new building styles and materials used, but the layout of the marketplace and the narrow width of plots remained. Despite the declining wool trade, the town remained a significant market centre as an agricultural trading point and, from the early C19, a place of manufacturing. The North Walsham and Dilham Canal was opened in 1826, and by the end of the C19 the town had two railway stations.
2 and 4 King’s Arms Street were built around 1856 for George Cubitt ‘ironmonger, iron founder and engineer’, with two commercial units fronting King’s Arms Street and Cubitt’s own dwelling (later known as Bank House) to the rear which he occupied until around 1886 when he was declared bankrupt. An earlier building on the site was largely demolished, though part of the basement appears to have been incorporated into the new construction. The commercial and domestic ranges of the building were interconnected, allowing the business owner to visit his commercial premises; access was later blocked after number 2 became a bank in the late C19.
An article published in the Norfolk Chronicle on 27 June 1857 advertised Cubitt’s new premises on King’s Arms Street ‘adjoining his foundry and agricultural and implement works’ and invited patrons ‘to inspect his new and extensive stock of stoves, fenders, fire-irons, electro-silver goods, cutlery, papier maché and japanned goods, and every article in the furnishing ironmongery department’. The foundry is recorded as providing all the lock gear and balance beams for the nearby North Walsham and Dilham canal.
Census returns from 1891 and 1901 record 4 and 6 King’s Arms Street as being occupied by Frederick J Cubitt, draper and grocer. A photograph of around 1908 shows the commercial buildings fronting King’s Arms Street, with the Capital and Counties Bank (formerly Lacons Touell and Kemp Bank) on the right (number 2) and Cubitt’s Grocers on the left (number 4), then occupied together with number 6 adjoining. The shopfront of the bank, comprising a corniced fascia, flat-arched door with overlight, and two round-arched windows to the right, was extended across number 4 in the early to mid-C20 with two further round-arched windows added to the left side of the door. Cubitt's grocery moved wholly to No 6, which was rebuilt at that time. Numbers 2 and 4 remained in use as a bank until 1998 after which they were adapted as a restaurant.
Details
Commercial premises and private dwelling, built in 1856 by George Cubitt, local ironmonger and industrialist.
MATERIALS: the commercial (street-front) range has a pantile roof covering and buff-brick walls, the ground floor shopfront of which is rendered. The domestic range to the rear has a pantile roof covering and red-brick walls laid in Flemish bond; the porch on the garden elevation is ruled-and-lined rendered.
PLAN: the building is L-shaped on plan comprising a rectangular-plan commercial range fronting the west side of King’s Arms Street, and a perpendicular domestic range to the rear, roughly rectangular on plan, with a projecting porch on its garden (south) elevation.
EXTERIOR: the commercial range fronting King’s Arms Street is two storeys high over a basement and six bays wide, featuring a dentilled eaves course with egg-and-dart moulding, buff-brick walls and a rendered shopfront. The hipped roof has a late-C20 pantile covering, and formerly had a buff-brick chimneystack on the south side, however this was removed in the late C20. The first floor has four flat-arched window surrounds each with a vermiculated keystone and four-over-four pane sash windows, and a canted window to the northmost bay. The ground floor shopfront is rendered to the right five bays over a moulded plinth, while the southmost bay is without render. The shopfront has a cornice, plain fascia, five round-arched windows openings each with a plain keystone and moulded surround, and a central flat-arched moulded door surround containing a replacement glazed door and plain overlight. The two southmost bays, now containing windows, show evidence of previously being door openings. The rear (west) elevation of the commercial range is cement rendered and has metal-framed top-hung casement windows and a mid-C20 single-storey strong room.
Bank House (to the rear of numbers 2 and 4) projects westwards from the rear of the commercial range and is two storeys high over a raised basement and its garden (south) elevation is six bays long. The hipped roof, formerly slate covered, has a late-C20 pantile covering and buff-brick chimneystacks. The walls are constructed of red brick laid in Flemish bond, with a two-storey porch projecting from the second bay from east. The porch, likely added soon after construction around 1856, is ruled-and-lined rendered, with an ornate brick balustrade, quoins, a cast-iron cresting to a first-floor window (containing two-over-two sashes), a guilloche stringcourse over the ground floor, side windows to the ground floor (containing 4 fixed lights), a half-glazed and panelled door to the interior (likely original), and steps with railings descending south to the garden. A classical door surround was added to the flat-arched porch entrance in the late C20. The windows generally contain four-over-four sashes with cast-iron sills (most probably manufactured by Cubitt’s foundry). The west end of the domestic range has a lower (north) and a higher (south) section, both two storeys over a basement; the lower (north) section is probably a remnant of an earlier building and has a slate-roofed lean-to at basement level.
INTERIOR: the interior of the commercial range retains sections of margined cornicing to the ceiling, with insulated ceiling panels added to the interior of the margins in the C20. A stair off the north side provides access to the first-floor domestic quarters. On the first floor, the north room retains a picture rail and window seat to the bay window, and the south room retains a picture rail and fire surround (blocked).
Within Bank House, the stair hall features a fine stair with panelled spandrel (containing a cloakroom), right-hand newel post with volute, an ornate balustrade composed of cast-iron scrolled balusters (probably manufactured by the Cubitt foundry) and timber spindles, and a moulded handrail with wall rail opposite. North of the stair hall a corridor runs east to west, having three-centred arches on scrolled brackets over; the eastmost arch formerly provided access into the commercial range to the east however access was blocked after the commercial range became a bank in the late C19. West of the stair hall, the sitting room retains a cast-iron ceiling rose (probably manufactured by the Cubitt foundry), plain cornice, picture rail and panelled window shutters. West of the sitting room, the former housemaid’s room formerly contained a servant’s stair which appears to have risen from the basement to the first-floor bedrooms, however this stair was removed in the C20. At the west end of the corridor, the kitchen retains its pantry with original timber and slate shelving. Between the kitchen and former housemaid’s room, a brick stair descends to a two-room basement, which shows evidence of earlier construction. The south basement room has a brick and pamment floor, brick-built cellar bins, and a stair in its northeast corner rising to the former housemaid’s room (now blocked). The north basement room retains a pamment floor and tall fire surround on the north wall. Off the half-landing of the main stair, the first floor of the porch contains a water closet. From the first-floor landing, a corridor runs east to west off which are a shower room (previously an access route through to the first floor of commercial range, now blocked) and four bedrooms. The south-east and south-west bedrooms each have a blocked fireplace, and the principal bedroom west of the landing has a round-arched and scalloped cast-iron fireplace with pivoting trivets. The former servant’s stair, formerly located between the principal bedroom and the south-west bedroom, has been replaced by an antechamber and cupboards on the south side, and a cupboard on the north side off the corridor. At the west end of the corridor, there are a small number of steps down west to a bathroom, and north-west to a small bedroom which retains a plain fire surround with a cast-iron grate; this lower section probably represents part of an earlier building. A high proportion of original joinery survives throughout the domestic range including picture rails, skirting boards, door and window surrounds, and four panelled doors together with original door furniture.
