Building record LWT 394 - 36 High Street, Lowestoft

36 High Street is an historically important grade II* listed Tudor town house of the mid-16th century that preserves one of the most impressive moulded ceilings in the county. The structure consists of a jettied range against the street with a wing projecting at right-angles towards the former sea-cliff at the rear, both of which appear contemporary and consist of brickwork with timber-framed upper storeys. Precise analysis of the original layout is hampered by a lack of exposed evidence, but the building probably
represents a complete Tudor house that possessed a shop on the street with a great chamber above and a rear hall that was entered by a side passage. It is possible, however, that no. 36 was formerly linked with one or other neighbouring properties and formed part of a much larger dwelling. The internal structure of the present shop is entirely concealed by modern plaster, and its façade is a good late-19th century example, but the two open trusses of its first-floor chamber possess finely carved buttress shafts and the moulded rear ceiling includes the largest relief scrolls of my acquaintance. This rear room was slightly enlarged in the late-18th century when its end gable, which contained a large chimney, was entirely renewed and both roofs replaced. Subsequent additions to the house, which saw it extend further over the cliff, are understood to have been largely rebuilt in 1949-50 following wartime bomb damage. The property is reputed to be the oldest house in Lowestoft, dating from the late-15thcentury, and is described as such on a plaque currently attached to its front wall. This information presumably derives from the Schedule of Listed Buildings, which erroneously dates the rear ceiling to c.1440. This may perhaps be a typographical error for c.1540, which is the earliest decade to which it can possibly relate, although the mistake is twice repeated. Lowestoft evidently enjoyed a period of great economic prosperity during the Tudorperiod, and a number of 16th century merchants’ houses survive in the High Street. The carved ceiling of the inn at itsnorthern end, for example, bears a striking similarity to that of Paycocke’s House in Coggeshall, Essex, which has recently been tree-ring dated to 1509 (National Trust Historical Survey, Leigh Alston, 2005) (S1).