NHER 12914 (Building record) - Evershed House, 23 and 25 King Street

Evershed House, 23 and 25 King Street.

December 1951. Listed, Grade II.

April 1984. Field Observation.
Visited by E. Rose (NAU) in represence to planning application. Property derelict at time of examination.
Two 17th century houses with single 18th/19th century front block. The street façade is of red brick with yellow stucco surrounds to the windows and doorway and forming rusticated quoins. It is of five bays and three storeys, the top storey having smaller windows. The façade is late 18th or early 19th century and hides the fact that the property consists of two separate houses running west from the street line, separated by a passageway to which the central door on the façade gives access. Doors with rounded 18th century fanlights give access from the stone flagged passage to the individual houses. The west gables of both houses are stepped and in 17th century brickwork, though the windows have been replaced.
On the interior there is nothing remaining that appears 17th century except a few scraps of panelling in smaller rooms and a reused baluster in No. 23. The remainder of the interior is late 18th century or Regency in style.
Vanessa Parker in (S1) gives this pair as examples of houses totally rebuilt in the 17th century.
Possibly earlier windows said to have been discovered in restoration.
E. Rose (NAU) 19 April 1984. See file notes (S2) for full short report.
Amended by A. Cattermole (King's Lynn UAD), 28 November 2018.

December 1985.
The fireplaces and some of the baluster rails, as well as the lead from the roof, were stolen in December 1985. Afterwards a repair order was served by the council as regards the roof. Slides of the interior as before were happily taken by King's Lynn Museum. The House may be purchased by the Kings Lynn Trust.
Compiled by E. Rose (NAU), 7 April 1986. Information from file notes (S2).
Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 20 July 2023.

July 1988.
House purchased by King's Lynn Trust but interior found to have dry rot. Most of the woodwork from the roof therefore had to be removed. Information from District Council.
Compiled E. Rose (NAU), 22 July 1988. Information from file notes (S2).
Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 20 July 2023.

History of house by E. James (KLM) (S3) suggests that property began as two houses with open halls at the street end. She notes that the Preservation Trust have made a copy of the stolen staircases but not the cast iron firegrates; and that older windows including a north-facing dormer window with concave mullions, was discovered. Concave mullions suggest a 16th-century date but might perhaps survive into the 17th; more details are needed.
Compiled by E. Rose (NAU). Information from file notes (S2).
Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 20 July 2023.

Dr D G Wilson, in Conservation Area statement 2001, refers to south wall along Ferry Lane (or perhaps to garden wall continuing it)
as a 15th-century wall, one of the oldest examples of Old English Garden Wall Bond in Britain.
Compiled by E. Rose (NAU). Information from file notes (S2).
Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 20 July 2023.

However (S4) gives the location for the guildhall on documentary evidence as NHER 37355.
E. Rose (NLA), 30 August 2002.

See press cuttings (S5)-(S8) in file. See also (S9).

Listing Description excerpt:
"House, later houses and tenements, now offices. Early 17th-century reconstruction on an existing plot. Mid-18th-century façade. Brick. Plain tiled roof. Plan is of a front range with a central passage to rear, opening into a very narrow yard which separates two parallel ranges running west, a form which invites a split into two independent properties. Converted 1989-1991 to offices. Masculine facade of three storeys in five bays with rusticated stone quoins and stone surrounds to the late C18 sashes with glazing bars. Central fielded and panelled door. Door surround of big rusticated blocks with an arch over the fanlight and a metope frieze beneath the hood. Parapet hides roof. One stack right and left. South gable wall rebuilt in yellow commons after collapsing c.1900. 20th-century south rear wing in 17th-century brick runs down Ferry Lane: one three-light 17th-century mullioned casement to ground floor; occasional 18th-century sashes with glazing bars. Rear wings of two storeys terminating in very rare, for Lynn, stepped gables. North wing is wider, accommodating two 1989 sashes to each floor and another in the gable. South wing only has one sash to each principal floor. Late 18th-century sashes here and there to courtyard elevations. Three gabled dormers to north wing, on south roof slope. One ridge stack to each wing, that to the south of 17th century.
INTERIOR. One ovolo-moulded two-light timber casement survives to first floor of south rear wing. Rear ground-floor west room to north range with a sunk quadrant bridging beam. Occasional deeply moulded internal door surrounds. Roof of north wing has upper clasped purlins and cambered collars, the south wing roof is much altered. Front range appears to have a standard principal, common and purlin roof."
Information from (S10).
Please consult the National Heritage List for England (S10) for the current listing details.
P. Watkins (HES), 20 July 2023.

In 1992 the house was purchased from the King's Lynn Preservation Trust by a local firm of solicitors, Kenneth Bush. The building was renamed Evershed House after Lady Joan Evershed, founder and chairman of the Trust. It is currently in use as offices.
Information from (S11).
A. Cattermole (King's Lynn UAD), 28 November 2018.