Description

THETFORD

TL8683 KING STREET
617-1/5/74 (South side)
03/04/51 Bell Hotel

II*

Coaching inn, now hotel. Mid C15 with C17 extensions and later
alterations. Mid C15 main block facing King Street, C17
extensions to south. Rendered and colourwashed timber-frame.
Machine tile roofs.
North facade in 2 storeys, the upper floor jettied. Ground
floor with heavy scantling studs on a brick and flint plinth.
Corner braces to west support dragon beams. Carriage arch set
to left now with C20 doors.
To left a C19 cross casement, to right a late C19 canted bay
window with sashes and four C18 6/6 sashes right of this. 7
sash windows to first floor, all with 8/8 glazing bars, except
for centre 3 which have 6/6 glazing bars. Gabled roof, hipped
to west, carrying 4 saw-toothed C19 ridge stacks. Rear of this
wing faces inner courtyard.
C19 extension through 2 storeys fitted with 3 mid C20
three-light cross casements. Later entrance to right. C17 wing
of 2 storeys and dormer attic. Late C20 ground-floor
passageway added to west facade. 2-light cross casements to
first floor and two C20 windows. 5 hipped dormers, of which
the 2nd and 5th from left are C20 additions. Gabled roof with
ridge stack left of centre and a truncated internal gable-end
stack to north.
External junction of the 2 ranges filled with a C19 range of
one-storey and dormer attic: C20 ground-floor fenestration and
2 through-eaves hipped dormers with casements. Gabled machine
tile roof.
INTERIOR: cellar with 2 re-used tie beams with hollow chamfers
and roll and hollow fillets. Former carriage arch, now main
pedestrian entrance, with engaged colonnettes with scalloped
capitals rising to arched braces and wall arches. Internal
arch with hollow chamfers, external one with knuckle braces.
West of this is an external gallery, now internal following
C19 extensions to courtyard: wall posts with arched braces
support jetty with, at first floor, a formerly open gallery
giving access to first-floor rooms. Ground-floor north range
now the main bar. Very heavy scantling to timber-frame
formerly with arched braces rising to bridging beams. South
wall with 4-centred arch. Internal staircase is C20, external
stairs now gone.
First-floor west room with C16 wall-painting of arches,
painted as a perspective exercise. Upper gallery with a
fragment of exposed wattle and daub, the wattles tied with
twisted grass string. Timber-frame with hollow-chamfered
braces to tie beams. Main roof C20. C17 wing with spine beam
decorated with sunk-quadrant mouldings and 2 fillets.
Celebrated coaching inn first mentioned in 1493. Remained as a
principal coaching inn on the London-Norwich post until 1845
(arrival of railway).
(The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North-west and South
Norfolk: Harmondsworth: 1962-: 347).

Listing NGR: TL8692483124

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Bell Hotel at Wikipedia
• Bell Hotel official website
• Wikidata Q4883185

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

• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings