NHER 285 (Monument record) - Early medieval to post-medieval occupation, Nos 183 to 189 King Street

1975. Excavation.
Limited trial excavation at site of Rainbow Public House by M. W. Atkin as part of Norwich Survey.
Late 11th and 12th century: Heavily disturbed post holes and foundation slots.
13th-14th century: A complex series of small pits.
15th century: Fragmentary traces of a flint and brick walled building.
Late 15th century: Construction of an 'L' plan building with a vaulted undercroft on the street frontage.
Late 17th-early 18th century: Remodelling of the building on a poorer scale after a period of decay.
Interpretation of the site was complicated by massive 19th-century foundations.
Information from short published note (S1). The excavation is also mentioned in (S2)-(S5).
An archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 1976.75).
Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 21 August 2026.

November 2019. Desk-based Assessment.
Assessment of potential heritage impact of proposed residential development, which would see the redevelopment of this land plus the demolition of the adjacent former Norfolk County Council Stores building (NHER 70227).
It is clear from the available cartographic evidence that this site had been occupied to some extent since at least the late 17th century, with Cleer's map of 1696 showing buildings along much of this section of the King Street frontage. By the time that Hochstetter's map was published in 1789 the King Street frontage was fully developed, with much of the remainder of the site occupied by a series of long building ranges extending back from the river. Nineteenth-century maps also show various buildings occupying the site, although Morant's map of 1873 suggests that areas of open space were present until relatively late on. The Ordnance Survey 1:500 Town Plan map published in 1885 (S6) does though show the site to have been fully developed by this time. The northernmost part of the site was occupied by a large probable warehouse complex, the easternmost elements of which survive (at least for now) as part of the former Norfolk County Council Stores building (NHER 70227). A narrow building adjoining the western ranges of the warehouse was potentially some form of office or administrative block. Adjoining the warehouse on the street frontage to the south was The Rainbow Public House, for which there is documentary evidence going back as far as 1760. To the south of The Rainbow was an adjoining pair of buildings we know from other documentary sources to have been a pair of cottages. To the rear of these buildings stood two malt houses, both of which had been demolished by 1928. The surviving warehouse and the other buildings along the King Street frontage can be seen in an Aerofilms aerial photograph taken in 1928 (S7).
See reports (S8) and (S9) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 21 August 2026.

October 2020. Geophysical Survey.
Ground penetrating radar (GPR) survey of proposed development site.
This survey suggests that much of the near surface region has been extensively disturbed by the construction and demolition of the large buildings know to have been present across much of this site during the 19th century. Although there is considerable reflection in the upper 0.5-0.6m of ground this lacks spatial coherence with no structures apparent. The survey did potentially identify the small yard associated with The Rainbow Public House, although there was no trace of the building itself. Some buried ground levels do though appear to exist, mostly within the southern part of the site, with at least one possible plot boundary identified. The results give the impression that the buried ground surface sloped eastwards to a depth of at least 0.8m below the present ground level - which is unsurprising given the position of the site in relation to the river. Little of interest could be seen beneath the modern deposits in the northern half of the site, although it may be that surviving remains were undetectable below the quantities of reflective material close to the surface.
Information from draft report. Final version awaited.
P. Watkins (HES), 21 August 2026.