Celebrating our heritage at Woolmarket House
We are listed as property #56 in the official programme
Woolmarket House is a Grade II* listed building dating from the mid-15th century that used to be conjoined with the neighbouring property to form a hotel in the 20th century called the Tudor Rose Hotel that closed its doors in 2017. Both properties were redeveloped as two separate private houses in 2020.
Its ownership can be traced to the family of Richard Clark, his son Matthew, and son-in-law Thomas Snelling, who were merchants when King's Lynn was a centre of commercial activity among the maritime towns of continental Europe. Their family memorials are in St Nicholas's Chapel nearby on St Ann's Street. The river and port area for this busy port at the time, would have been much closer to the property at the height of its commercial activity as a merchant’s house.
Currently being used as a kitchen at Woolmarket House, this part of the property was part of another property (an earlier version of St Ann’s House) - an 18th century building. This much larger house was dismantled (with the exception of the Kitchen block), between 1914 – 1917, and transported to the United States of America. From the car park on St Ann's Street it is still possible to view the bricked up doors and corridors on the gable end that allowed the former inhabitants to move between the two buildings.
The Tuscan columns on the front elevation were added on either side of the larger entrance to Woolmarket House in the early 17th century. Historic photographs and drawings show that the Tuscan columns formerly had a cornice over them; however, this was removed in the 1960s. The mock-Tudor door and windows - now serving as the main entrance - are assumed to have been introduced in the mid-20th century.
The artist Gustav Metzger (1926 - 2017), lived here during the mid-1950s. The current kitchen and other rooms within the property served as his studio. Although only in King's Lynn for a few years he was an important figure in helping to conserve the town's architectural heritage, as he opposed the demolition of the Old North End. Thereby saving many of the original fisherman's dwellings that latterly became True's Yard Fisherfolk Museum on the corner of St Ann's Street.
The redevelopment of both houses in 2020 was carried out by a local developer, done sympathetically in accordance with the local listed buildings officer, which allowed for many of the hidden features from earlier centuries in both buildings to be recovered and made more prominent. At No. 6 this included revealing the timber framing, fireplace surrounds (although not their corresponding chimneys), moulded beams and wooden mullioned windows.
Woolmarket House is currently a private home that also offers B&B accommodation, as well as a viewing room for contemporary and applied art, made by artists and makers based across East Anglia - showing a programme of monthly solo and two person exhibitions, with related visual art events.
CONTACT US paul@woolmarket-house.co.uk
