NHER 66814 (Monument record) - Site of 8 Muspole Street

This is the site of 8 Muspole Street, a house of possible 17th-century date. Although now entirely demolished, some elements had survived until relatively recently, including part of its east-facing frontage and a fairly elaborate doorcase with a moulded triangular pediment.

Documentary evidence suggests that Muspole Street was occupied by at least the 13th century and the earliest detailed maps of Norwich show a continuous row of buildings along this section of the street. It is likely that 8 Muspole Street is the large building shown at this location on Hochstetter’s map of 1789 (S1). The Ordnance Survey First Edition 1:500 Town Plan map (S2) shows it extent at the end of the 19th century. At this time it was separated from the buildings to the north by a passageway that led a group of small houses surrounding an open space known as Yeast Yard. Most of the houses to the west of 8 Muspole Street were cleared in the early 20th century, to make way for the construction of the Witton’s shoe factory. The house itself would also become part of their premises.
See report (S3) for further information on the history of Muspole Street.
P. Watkins (HES), 3 March 2023.

December 2014. Building Survey.
Analysis of available photographs of 8 Muspole Street, including two taken by George Plunkett in the 1930s (S4) and recent images taken prior to the demolition of the last remaining elements of this building.
By the 1930s the buildings that had previously stood to the south of 8 Muspole Street had been removed and it appears that those to the north had also been substantially demolished. Plunkett’s photographs show 8 Muspole Street to have been of two stories with parapeted gables and a pitched roof. The façade was of brick with an offset plinth and a plat-band at first floor level. A blocked entrance can be seen at the southern end of the main façade, to the right of which was a set of double doors to a vehicle or carriage entrance that is indicated on the 1885 map (S2). The first floor of the building extended over the passageway that had previously led to Yeast Yard, the entrance to which can be seen to the right of the main door with its pedimented doorcase. An interesting array of windows can be seen, the earliest of which are likely to be several mullioned and transomed windows on the 1st floor, which suggest a 17th-century date for the building. Several sash windows with relatively small panes were probably later additions, perhaps during the mid to late 18th century. The doorcase was possibly added around the same time, triangular pediments having become popular from the mid 18th century onwards.
At an unknown date much of the building was demolished, leaving only a portion of the ground floor standing. The surviving elements of the front wall included the main entrance and its doorcase, the blocked-up openings of the sash windows to either side and the former entrance to Yeast Yard. Everything to the south was demolished, with the south wall of the surviving structure being that which had previously formed the northern side of the carriage entrance. The doorcase was in surprisingly good condition and in essentially the same form as it had been in 1938.
See report (S5) for further details and relevant photographs.
P. Watkins (HES), 3 March 2023.

November-December 2015. Excavation.
A rectangular area excavated close to the street frontage straddled the former line of the passageway leading to Yeast Yard and therefore exposed structural remains relating to the buildings that had stood on either side. The main, street range of 8 Muspole Street was shown to have been built from 'late' bricks of probable 17th-century date, which is consistent with the date suggested following an examination of the available photographic evidence (see above). Various walls associated with a rear range shown on the 1885 map (S2) were constructed from bricks of a slightly later date.
The building to the north of the passage to Yeast Yard was shown to have had earlier, late medieval or early post-medieval origins.
See NHER 50560 for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 5 March 2023.

The mapped extent of this record reflects the outline of the building shown on (S2).
P. Watkins (HES), 3 March 2023.