Description

KING'S LYNN

TF6119NE QUEEN STREET
610-1/9/177 (West side)
01/12/51 No.17
Clifton House
(Formerly Listed as:
QUEEN STREET
(West side)
No.17
(Clifton House) & Tower at rear of
Clifton House)

GV I

House. C13, C14, rebuilt in parts C16 and C17, refronted 1708
(dated on lead rainwater hopper). Built originally as 2 hall
houses.
Brick. Plain tiled roofs.
1708 elevation to Queen Street of 2 storeys in 7 bays.
Doorcase in second bay (from left) comprising 2 barley-twist
columns in antis with modified Corinthian capitals. Flat hood
with guttae carrying a segmental pediment. Panelled doors.
Small cellar windows to right. Fenestration of sashes with
glazing bars under gauged skewback arches. Timber eaves
cornice below hipped roof. Stack right of centre and on south
roof slope.
North elevation to King's Staithe Lane with large stepped
external stack. Cornice continues. Short wing projects west
along Lane in 2 storeys. 3 sashes to ground floor, 6 to first
floor, the 2 to east taller. Glazing bars. Gabled roof.
South side of house forms north side of courtyard. Panelled
door to right, 4 sashes to ground floor, 5 to first floor, all
with glazing bars. Gabled roof.
At west end is look-out tower, the last late C16 example
surviving in Lynn and a fine example of C16 brick work with
many similarities in its planning to late medieval solar
towers in this region e.g. Caistor in Norfolk. Square plan, 5
storeys, with a 6-storey polygonal staircase tower against
south side. One room each floor. One 3-light casement to each
floor of east and west elevations, all with pediments.
Panelled door under broken pediment to east. Newel of
staircase formed of a single ship's mast. Wall paintings in
third floor room.
INTERIOR. Mid C14 four-bay undercroft beneath Queen
Street/King's Staithe Lane return. 4 central octagonal stone
piers with moulded capitals carry flat brick rib vaults. C13
door in south wall leads into a room with a tiled C13 floor,
the tiles glazed with decorative patterns. Remains of central
hearth. Staircase probably 1708: 3 twisted balusters per
tread, carved tread-ends.

Listing NGR: TF6165319937

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Clifton House at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17536463

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

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  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
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  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)