Heigham Street
Heigham Street The late Tudor age saw the
beginning of a movement of the populace outside the
confines of the city walls. There were two reasons for
this: in the first place the walls were no longer used or
required for military purposes, and secondly the area
they bounded was already pretty fully occupied. One of
these early extra-mural properties was No 12 Heigham
Street (right). Much altered as it was during the
course of succeeding centuries, it retained to the last a
fine flint wall with freestone quoins, pierced on two
floors with long ranges of windows, typically Elizabethan
in character and not unlike a manor house of the period.
The third storey, which was of grey brick, was no doubt a
nineteenth-century addition. |
 Another house of mediaeval
origin and built outside the city proper was No 26
Heigham Street (left). Here, however, the walls were
of a rubble-like quality by no means displaying such a
fine finish as the eastern front of its neighbour, No 12.
During the nineteenth century this building was licensed
as the Orchard tavern, a business that was transferred to
a new building fronting the street in later years. Both
buildings were gutted in the April raids, as was also No
12.Text and photographs Copyright © G.A.F.Plunkett 2004 |