Buildings of King’s Lynn

Some of King’s Lynn’s most prominent buildings.

INTRODUCTION

This post was inspired by a comment posted on my ‘about aspiblog’ page by faradayscandle. I will be returning to this theme in future posts.

A SELECTION OF BUILDINGS

We will start with the most iconic building in King’s Lynn…

THE CUSTOM HOUSE

For more about the inside of the building visit this post. Here are two outside pictures both taken recently (the second of them today)…

KING’S LYNN MINSTER

This 12th century church, formlery known as St Margarets, has its own website where you can find out lots of information about it. Here a couple of pictures…

THE OLD GAOL HOUSE

Still on the Saturday Market Place, this handsome building possesses one very interesting external feature. The building is currently closed, but will reopen as Stories of Lynn around Easter time. Meantime, here are two external pictures…

THE GUILDHALL

This remarkable building, right next door to the Old Gaol House, is chiefly known for its checkerboard frontage, but as this post shows, the inside is not too shabby either! Here are some pictures of the outside…

The remainder of the buildings will feature only single pictures. Having finished with the Saturday Market Place, we head towards the Tuesday Market Place, by way of King Street where we feature the Arts Centre…

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Frequently when featuring the Tuesday Market Place the Corn Exchange dominates, but I am featuring just one building, The Dukes Head Hotel, home to Philanthropic Lodge 107. Of greater significance at the moment, this building will be hosting a Positive Autism Awareness Conference, organised by NAS West Norfolk. Here is the outside of the building…

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ST ANN’S STREET

I am saving St Nicholas’ Chapel for another post, so I offer you St Ann’s House and the upstairs of the barber shop…

Our next brief port of call is…

THE RED MOUNT CHAPEL

This chapel, which is entirely surrounded by beautiful parkland always repays attention. here is a recent picture…

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From here we head down the Broad Walk to…

THE LIBRARY

This is the only building in this part of the post of which I am posting more than one image, and both were taken recently. This is one of three libraries that I use on a regular basis, the others being Fakenham and The Millennium Library, Norwich.

HILLINGTON SQUARE

On our way down to the river, where we will finish, we pass Hillington Square, where improvement work has stopped since the £10 million that was allowed for this project has all been spent. Here is a glimpse of one of the new blocks…

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SOMERFELD AND THOMAS

A disused warehouse, in need of renovation. The building is still fundamentally very attractive, and could be turned into something very good.

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Before heading towards Lower Purfleet and the end of this post, a little look upriver to…

PALM PAPER

The direction in which the smoke is travelling in this picture (straight towards town) provides one reason as to why we objected to the building of an incinerator there. What we knew of the company who would have built it had we not put a stop to the idea was all bad (no contracts for anything in their native land since 1995, banned outright from operating in 29 of the 5o states of that native land). Also, incinerators are not a good idea anyway (I, and I suspect a majority of the 65,000 of us who said no, did not think it should be built anywhere). The fact that we prevented this should provide encouragement to others faced with greedy politicians trying to force hare-brained schemes on them (see here for a classic example).

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MARRIOTT’S WAREHOUSE

A warehouse that has been given the necessary attention. As well as good cafe and restaurant this building houses a small exhibition of models of King’s Lynn buildings. From the outside this is what you see…

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THE BANK HOUSE

This hotel his some interesting stuff inside it, and from the outside looks like this:

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THE LOWER PURFLEET

We finish the post with a glimpse across the Lower Purfleet from The Bank House, where these buildings can be seen (a stone’s throw away is the Custom House where we started).

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ANTIQUES ROAD TRIP: BRAXTON VS ROSS

A brief account of yesterday;s episode of Antiques Road Trip, which featured both my home town and my employer. Also some photographs and some links.

INTRODUCTION

Although I do have a few other things to share this post is mainly concerned with yesterday’s episode of Antiques Road Trip, which happened to feature an auction at Fakenham Racecourse (which took place on April 29th 2015).

ANTIQUES ROAD TRIP

Here is a link to last night’s episode:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b07027st/antiques-road-trip-series-12-episode-21

For those who watch, I am the person in the red jacket sitting next to the auctioneer.

This was the start of a new week, so we were introduced to the two experts and shown the car that they would be using first. Then the buying part of the episode happened, which features some excellent footage of King’s Lynn among other places.

The episode concluded, as they all do, with the auction. While I do not know much about what happened to these items after the auction I can tell you that following a couple of other unsuccessful outings the baker’s scales are still on the James and Sons van.

The program was well made, and even though I of course already knew which items were destined to be bought for sale at that auction, nevertheless it held my attention all the way through.

A PICTORIAL INTERLUDE

I mentioned that there was some good footage from King’s Lynn on yesterday’s episode of Antiques Road Trip, and here some photos from King’s Lynn…

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St Nicholas Chapel, taken in August
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The Corn Exchange, also from August
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The Custom House, from August
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Taken yesterday
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Taken yesterday
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Taken yesterday
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One of three images of the flag flying above King’s Lynn station, all taken yesterday
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The Red Mount Chapel, taken yesterday

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Taken yesterday
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Taken yesterday
100%
It is not often that a poll produces this result! – the story was about a Tory lord who was claiming that their daily allowance was insufficient!
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The front of the Duke’s Head Hotel where the Positive Autism Awareness Conference will be happening on April 15th.

WWW.LONDONTU.BE

I conclude this post by sharing a few recent posts connected with my London transport themed website:

The Lost Property Office

Tube Strike over job cuts and ticket office closures – Vox Political

Tube strike over job cuts and ticket office closures – Guardian

My most recent original post – Chingford and Loughton