From an old gun battery to a theatre destroyed by fire: Town’s history as told through its green plaques

You’ll find dozens dotted throughout Lynn town centre and further afield – but how often have you actually stopped to read them?Green, silver and blue plaques are positioned around the area to tell us more about the rich history of the places we’re looking at and the interesting people who lived there.On a walk around the town centre lasting just over an hour, I counted in excess of 50 of these signs – installed over the years by various organisations and authorities including King’s Lynn Civic Society and Lynn’s Trinity Rotary Club – and I’m sure there are many more I missed too.

Some of the more well-known places and stories you may already be aware of include The ‘Witch’s Heart’ House on the Tuesday Market Place, King John’s royal charter (marked at Stories of Lynn) and the Carnegie library.But how many of the dozens of others did you know about? Let’s take a look at some…Starting on the Tuesday Market Place, a green plaque on number 18 (Bishop’s House) states that the oldest parts are from the 15th century and the Bagge merchant family, brewers and bankers occupied the premises between 1725 and 1929. The building now houses a number of flats – with permission being sought to create more.

Over at number 21 – now Fraser Dawbarns – the premises were erected in 1768 for George Hogge, who was a wealthy merchant. In 1869 the building was bought by Gurney’s Bank, before their successors Barclays gave its front a makeover back to its original style in 1957. It’s also the site of the former Custom House – not to be confused by the current one – between 1620 and 1703. Let’s move on to St Nicholas Street, where you may have noticed ‘Bennett’s Yard’ at number 21. It’s a 15th century arch that used to lead under a house to a tenement yard behind. Meanwhile, it’s also significant because Primitive Methodists in Norfolk first met there in 1821. The house fell into ruin and was demolished in 1951.As for interesting people, a revolutionary artist, early anti-nuclear campaigner and local activist called Gustav Metzger lived in a studio at Woolmarket House between 1953 and 1959. He invented Auto-Destructive Art in response to nuclear weapons’ threat to society and the environment, and made demonstration pieces to show in London. He was also a founder of the North End Society in 1958, created in a move against the loss of the town’s fisherfolk quarter. Woolmarket House itself is a mid-15th century merchant’s hall-house on Woolmarket Street, which was part of the Tudor Rose inn between 1974 and 2017.

Just around the corner is St Ann’s Fort, where there is a green plaque pointing to the open square and brick arched wall to the north which are the last traces of the gun battery (which was known as St Ann’s Fort). It was built in 1570 to defend against seaborne threats to Lynn – and is likely to have been named after a “long disappeared” medieval Chapel of St Ann. Now a row of houses, an Associated British Port (ABP) office and GH Hair Design salon are what you will find at St Ann’s Fort.St Ann’s Street can boast the “earliest example of a parallel hall house” in Lynn at numbers 4 to 6, as well as a 14th century doorway. The range of buildings, from numbers 2 to 6, are from the 13th to 16th centuries and include a timber framed shop.Did you know that Juniper House – home to Freebridge Community Housing’s offices – on Austin Street, is named after Cllr Fred Juniper (1918-99) who was Mayor of King’s Lynn in 1975-1976 and Borough Mayor of West Norfolk in 1995-1996 during his 36 years of public service?

Opposite Juniper House on Austin Street is what remains of Austin Friars – the gateway of the Augustinian Friary which occupied the site from around 1295 until 1538. It was the home of Prior John Capgrave (1393-1464) who wrote The Chronicles of England to 1417, which was an early history of English. Austin Friars saw numerous royal visitors over the years, including kings and princes in the 15th century who stayed there while visiting the town. Over on the other side of Lynn, most people are probably already aware that the Majestic Cinema can boast a lengthy history. But did you know that it’s not far off of its centenary, having been built in 1927-28? The cinema, which was designed by local architects JL Carnell and WD White, was constructed in a Jacobean-Baroque style at the front and internally. Some interior features were brought from the old Empire Theatre in London’s Leicester Square.Heading down Tower Street towards Hillington Square, you’ll find a number of plaques telling you about former religious buildings. One such place is Tower Street Methodist Chapel – with all that remains of it being a brick pillar marking the end of the forecourt railings of the town’s principal Wesleyan chapel from 1812 to 1965. The plaque states: “Affectionately known as the ‘Methodist Minster’, the chapel stood in place of the modern Regent Way, on a site which had previously been the synagogue.”

On London Road is the site of the Primitive Methodist Chapel, which was their first in Lynn. It was built in 1825 after a house used for this purpose in Bennett’s Yard “almost collapsed under the weight of worshippers”. “The simple chapel in the ‘Bardic’ style, lit by candles, had benches for 500 people. In 1858 they moved again, to the current London Road church,” a sign explains. The building is currently available to let as a ground floor commercial office premises with Belton Duffey.And just around the corner is Millfleet Burial Ground, within the walls of which is a cemetery of a community of Dutch Jews who lived in Lynn between 1750 and 1846. “Despite royal protection, an earlier Jewish trading community in Lynn was massacred and property burnt by sailors on their way to the Third Crusade in 1190,” the plaque reads. “‘Jews Lane’ in medieval and Tudor times is now known as Surrey Street.”Nearby is Framingham’s Hospital, which is made up of almshouses, first built in around 1677 off Broad Street by John Halcott and Henry Framingham (Mayor in 1690 and 1700). The almshouses were rebuilt on the present site on London Road in 1848 with designs by Sharman of Spalding in order to enlarge the Cattle Market.

Moving on to St James Street, where there are a number of interesting stories to tell, including that numbers 6 to 14 are a row of 15th century shops once owned by Lynn’s Benedictine Priory. Number 14 was an inn called the Three Pigeons, which is also the old name for St James Street. Meanwhile, Lynn Savings Bank – which was designed in “imposing ‘Tudor gothic’ style” in 1858 – is also on this street. It became a YMCA in 1891 and for 30 years was a clubhouse for the Lynn branch of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes until 2015, before being converted into apartments in recent years. Further up the street, close to the Ritz Bingo hall, is a plaque which commemorates the Theatre Royal, which stood on the site from February 7, 1815, to May 10, 1936, when it was destroyed by fire. Famous actors from the time who performed there include Charles Kemble, Dora Jordan and Joseph Grimaldi. There’s stack loads of history on the Saturday Market Place which most people are probably aware of – including Lynn Minster and the town hall – but did you know that number 4 was built around 1700 with an early 19th century shop front? Formerly, the building was home to a scale makers in the early 1900s, it was later a yeast merchants, cafe, sweet shop, antique dealers, picture framers and a gift shop. The plaque here states that the oldest reference to a market there was in the Sand Market in 1104 and that in 1435, the town was granted a 999-year licence to hold a market in the Saturday Market Place.Heading up Queen Street and to Baker Lane, a plaque points to the Baker Lane Oil Cake Mill, which was a four-storey linseed oil mill and warehouse until it was destroyed by fire in 1899. It was rebuilt for Henry Leake and Son in 1900, making linseed cake for cattle feed. The tower then became a granary after 1945 and was kept as part of a courtyard of apartments built in 1985-87.

There are plaques galore on the very historic King Street. Number 29 is Shakespeare House which is a late 15th century ‘hall-house’ of timber and brick with a front wall from 1810 and added rooms from around 1780 beside the Guildhall. It was formerly the Shakespeare public house, with the name referring to the Guildhall’s use as a theatre in 1766-1814 and its connections with the Bard.

There are many, many more signs dotted around our town and further afield, telling dozens more stories about the area and its history. Keep an eye out for them when you’re next walking around as you never know what you might discover!

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