Medieval Guildhall (GOSH plaque)

Nos. 32 and 33 Baker Street, Gorleston is a late Medieval building with evidence of alterations dating from the 17th to the 20th centuries, which include the replacement of the queen post roof being replaced in the 18th century. There is a tentative 16th century date for the building and it was probably a Medieval hall. It probably consisted of at least one heated and one unheated room. Later in the 16th century a rear range was added. The building has a full height timber framed rear wall and a timber framed and jettied first floor above a masonry front wall. The chimney stack is off-centre towards the street side of the building, a characteristic usually associated with stack-side stairs. Hundreds of years ago it was at the hub of local democracy as Gorleston’s Guildhall, when the High Street passed its front door running from the parish church to the quay, taking in a smattering of manor houses.

By 1992, the property was in terminal decline and it was purchased by the Great Yarmouth Preservation Trust to save it from demolition. They paid £23,000 for the property and the cost of repairs amounted to £173,000. The finance was derived from grants: £20,000 from Living over the Shop, Great Yarmouth Borough Council, £5,750 from English Heritage, £40,000 from English Heritage Buildings at Risk, £2,000 Historic Buildings Grant, and £95,000 Architectural Heritage Fund. The renovated building became a shop, now a hairdressers, on the ground floor with living accommodation above.

The renovated building was opened by Baroness Hollis of Heigham in 1995.

Les Cockrill