NHER 4656 (Building record) - Town House, Yarmouth Road

Town House. Part of a complex of listed buildings, the other elements of which are now recorded separately as NHERs 65594-65599.

August 1973. Listed, Grade II.
Listing Description excerpt:
"House, now hotel. Mid 18th century with additions to north and east. Colourwashed brick and roofs of black glazed pantiles. Two storeys, reduced to one at north owing to slope of ground. Ground floor of south front obscured by 20th-century additions. Upper floor with five late 19th-century casements in original openings. Brick quoins and moulded brick cornice. Hipped roof."
Information from (S1).
Please consult the National Heritage List for England (S1) for the current listing details.
P. Watkins (HES), 21 May 2022.

July 1975. Field Observation.
Seen by E. Rose (NAU).
Town House Hotel/Walpole House/cottages. Block of listed buildings. All 18th century. Only shells remains. Town House had domed conservatory of c.1830, now destroyed [see below]. One of cottages said to have been occupied by Cotman. Semi-derelict.
Compiled by E. Rose (NAU), 19 July 1975. Information from record card (S2).
P. Watkins (HES), 23 May 2022.

Town House was used as a poor house in the 19th century.
E. Rose (NAU). Information from record card (S2).
P. Watkins (HES), 23 May 2022.

The above reference to a destroyed conservatory is from (S3) - but is he thinking of the observatory that was in use here in 1890s?
E. Rose (NAU). Information from record card (S2).
P. Watkins (HES), 23 May 2022.

December 1988. Building Survey.
Seen in detail when stripped out.
The ground floor ceiling beams are large and plain, and clearly designed to be hidden; the first floor beams have ornamental plaster casing. No other features of interest were noted. A small cellar beneath the east end looks to be of later date than the house.
The listed building description dates the building to the mid 18th century, but the south façade could equally well be of the final years of the 17th. As noted above the "remarkable domed conservatory" in the garden noted by Pevsner in (S3) was in fact an observatory built in the 1890s (see photograph in the Bolingbroke Collection) and no trace apparently now remains.
Architects plans (S4) in file.
Compiled by E. Rose (NLA). Information from file notes (S5).
P. Watkins (HES), 23 May 2022.