NHER 40890 (Monument record) - Site of 18th-century wall, Victorian cellars and World War Two air raid shelter

October 2004. Watching Brief and Trial Trench.
Archaeological work undertaken ahead of proposed redevelopment of Studio Theatre site. The Studio Theatre building dated to 1862 and was originally a Sunday School. An initial watching brief monitored ten small hand-dug geotechnical test pits. This work demonstrated that fairly deep made ground deposits were present across much of the site. Structural remains observed included a possible cellar and covered walkway, both associated with the Sunday School building. It was also noted that an east-to-west aligned wall adjacent to the north elevation of the building incorporated small quantities of architectural stone that was presumably derived from the medieval hospital and college that once occupied this area. The watching brief revealed brick footings at the base of this wall that indicate that it was of post-medieval date, possibly built in the early 19th century.
A single trial trench was subsequently excavated in open ground immediately to the south-west of the Studio Theatre. This trench revealed part of an extensive Victorian cellar that was potentially associated with the Congregational Chapel that had previously stood to the west (NHER 48929). It appears that these cellars were converted to air raid shelters during World War Two.
See report (S1) for further details. The results of this work are also summarised in (S2).
An archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2024.158).
Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 30 January 2018 and 26 August 2024.

2015. Building Survey.
Examination of the Studio Theatre building ahead of its proposed demolition.
It appears that a possible 16th-century date was suggested for the boundary wall to the rear of the building, although it should be noted that this was presumably the same wall that the earlier watching brief determined was most likely post-medieval.
Report awaited.
P. Watkins (HES), 30 January 2018.

October-December 2015. Watching Brief.
Monitoring of demolition of Studio Theatre and subsequent groundworks associated with the redevelopment of the site.
The demolition works provided an opportunity to examine the potentially early boundary wall that had lain to the north of the Studio Theatre. The fabric of the wall was a mix of brick, flint and slate, all bonded by lime mortar. The upper portion of the wall bore evidence for at least three episodes of building/repair, although in places the original fabric survived to a height of 2.70m. Material recovered during the demolition of the wall included two fragments of presumably medieval architectural stone, medieval ‘early bricks’, a medieval floor tile, post-medieval bricks and part of a post-medieval floor tile. Assuming it wasn’t a later insertion the post-medieval tile indicates that the wall cannot predate the 18th century. The subsequent excavation of a pipe trench exposed a short section of a perpendicular north-to-south aligned wall immediately to the south of the boundary wall. Although this wall incorporated medieval brick this material had clearly been reused. It is argued that the width of this second wall suggests that is was probably also a boundary wall, rather than part of a building.

Groundworks elsewhere on the site revealed no other archaeologically significant features, primarily disturbing the thick made ground deposits observed during the earlier work. A small number of post-medieval finds were recovered.
See report (S3) for further details.
The archive associated with this work has been deposited with the Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2017.324).
P. Watkins (HES), 30 January 2018.