Norfolk Heritage Explorer

Location

Full description

November 1988. Listed, Grade II.
Listing Description excerpt:
"Pair of houses with shops. 18th century, heightened in early 19th century and with 20th-century alterations. Red brick in Flemish bond; No.57 has been rendered. Slate roof with coped gables. Two storey house, heightened...to three storeys. Shops were inserted on the ground floor, the early 20th-century shopfront to No.56 is part of a large shopfront which extends across No.55 [NHER 42986].
EXTERIOR: three storeys, seven-window range, the end windows are narrower, and the second floor end windows are blind. Two ground floor shop fronts; the left hand part has early 20th-century shop which extends across No.55 to the left; it has pilasters, a console and blind boxes. The right hand shop to No.57 is late 20th century with a high fascia.
INTERIOR: No.56 has lost most of its transverse partition walls on ground and first floors but the spine wall survives and there are sections of wall panelling surviving. Hardboard cladding to walls and ceilings may conceal further original features. The visible features include: cornices, dado rails, window architraves, shutters and seats; in the ground floor the bayed round-arched doorway."
Information from (S1).
Please consult the National Heritage List for England (S1) for the current listing details.
Alice Cattermole (NLA), 24 January 2006. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 13 March 2022.

Renovations of numbers 55, 56 and 57 (see also NHER 51512) by Great Yarmouth Preservation Trust in 2008 revealed human skeletal remains mortared into one wall (inspected K. Hamilton, 14 January 2008). The wall was a 1740s extension wall (according to Conservation Officer) built to enclose part of the adjacent Row (possibly Row 43, but that is unclear), and the human remains were found in the corbelled buttressing for a fireplace. The remains comprised a partial cranium, including part frontal bone, part parietal bones, RH temporal bone (including part of zygomatic arch), LH temporal bone (no zygomatic arch). Skull was of an adult of indeterminate gender. Part healed trephanation in RH parietal bone. Cranium had been filled with mortar (which retained a cast of the internal features of the skull), suggesting it was fragmentary when found.
K. Hamilton (NLA), 5 December 2008.

May 2008.
Painted decoration discovered during building works in a second floor room. The wall with the painting is probably 17th century. The painting is on lime plaster with some hair, on a brick support. Only a fragment of painting is visible high up the wall above a mullioned window. It consists of narrow white vertical bands, probably outlined in red, dividing the space into wider vertical panels. The backgrounds to the panels have almost gone but may have been coloured originally. There is a motif at the top of each panel which seems to have been repainted. The first scheme is red crescent shapes, the left crescent was overpainted with a blue/ green motif and the right one with a cross. A cornice seems to have been applied along the top edge. The painting is clearly associated with a partition that no longer exists. The negative image for the partition can be seen in the brickwork. It is likely that further areas of painted decoration survive to the right of the exposed area. The painting is difficult to date but seems coeval with the 17th century structural alterations.
See report (S2) for further information
H. White (NLA) 19 December 2008

April 2009.
The building has been converted into 19 apartments. Original features such as window seats, shutters, panelling, peg tile roof and brick walls have all been retained. A 16th-century mullioned window was also discovered under plasterwork.
See (S3) for further details.
It should be noted that this work removed a number of features mentioned in the Listing Description, including the shop fronts and the rendering to No 57.
H. White (NLA), 29 April 2009. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 13 March 2022.

April 2008-February 2009. Watching Brief.
Evidence for the development of this area from the medieval period to the early 20th century was recorded during monitoring of groundworks to the rear of Nos 55¬57 North Quay. All excavations were small-scale and isolated, making dating and interpretation difficult, but five phases of activity were identified.
The earliest activity relates to the Carmelite Friary which was founded in 1276 and dissolved in 1538 (see NHER 4306). Recorded features included existing wall fragments and demolition debris from the destruction of the Friary buildings in the late medieval period. Evidence for early post medieval (c. 1590 to c. 1750) and late post medieval (c. 1750 to c. 1900) walls and surfaces immediately adjacent to Nos 55¬-57 North Quay were also recorded, documenting changes to the exterior space surrounding these buildings.
See report (S4) and NHER 51512 for further information.
H. Hamilton (HES), 18 June 2013.

Monument Types

• WALL PAINTING (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
• HOUSE (17th Century to 21st Century - 1700 AD to 2100 AD)
• SHOP (19th Century to 21st Century - 1900 AD to 2100 AD)

Associated Finds - none

Protected Status

• Listed Building

Sources and further reading

Related records

Find out more...

• Great Yarmouth: Earliest Settlement (Urban Summary)
• Great Yarmouth: Geology and Environment (Urban Summary)
• Great Yarmouth: Medieval topography (Urban Summary)
• Great Yarmouth: Priories and Friaries (Urban Summary)
• Great Yarmouth: The Medieval fishing industry (Urban Summary)