101 High Street

Local Historian David Butcher has the following to say about these houses:

'101 to 104 The High Street'
An interesting section of the High Street here, at its lower end, with the building nearest the camera (No 101) being the former “Albion Stores” public house - the second word of the name once being used in other Lowestoft hostelries. The first structure on this plot was placed there during the mid-17th century on land belonging to Nos. 102-104, the row of shops next door.

This line of retail units is, in fact, a former merchant’s house, dating from the earlier decades of the 16th century, and it is possible to walk along the internal roof-space, from end to end - there being no partitioning of it, as has occurred beneath. It is hard to say whether the off-centre chimney-stack is integral or introduced - but, either way, it is a sign of wealth and status, with the ground-floor and first-floor rooms on either side of it able to be heated. The jettied (overhanging) upper level is further evidence of the building’s antiquity and its middle section (No. 103) has particularly fine, moulded beams and joists in the ground-floor room and an eye-catching cambered ceiling, with jowelled vertical wall-posts, in the space above.

Many years ago, when this shop was undergoing replacement of its first-floor outer cladding, vertical wooden studs were revealed, with herringbone brick-nogging in between: further evidence of its quality. All of Lowestoft’s late medieval dwellings were half-timbered. In other words, the ground-floor (usually, with a cellar beneath) was a constructed of masonry, with the upper level and roof being timber-framed. Full timber-framing started at ground-level on an oak sole-plate, placed on a layer of rubble, and used a lot more trees. The house here - one of the town’s important survivors - may well have been built by members of the Scarlett family, merchants during the first half of the 16th century.

At this time, and for many decades afterwards, most of Lowestoft’s houses would have been thatched. But all that changed after the disastrous town fire of March 1645 and tiles became increasingly used thereafter. During the mid-1980s, the writer and two UEA associates spent a day studying Nos. 27 (the “Royal Falcon” ), 36 & 102-4 High Street. One of them, the late Alan Carter (at the time, Director of the Norwich Survey), remarked that these three houses’ timber-framing was as good as any to be found in the City - if not better, in some cases. He said that its superiority rested not in its decorative appearance, but in the quality of the timber used.

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In 1865 the pub was called the Ship and Railway Tavern and it's landlord was Charles Harper but by 1876 it had changed its name to simply The Ship and the landlord was still Charles Harper. In 1900 the pub had changed its name again and this time it was the Albion Stores and the landlord was Frank Dorling, from the 1930's to its closing day the landlord from then to the 1970's was Issac Baxter. Since it closed it has been a tea shop, first The Larder Tea Rooms and by 2016 No Place Like Home and it was charming little place to have afternoon tea and watch the world walk by.

CREDIT: Lowestoft High Street, The Butcher, The Baker and The Candlestick Maker by Crispin Hook 2016 Get the book

East or West Side: East side When built: The present building, which is Grade II listed, dates from the mid 19th century with an original shop front of that period. Brief history/features: Records show that by the very early 1800s the building that stood here was a beer house at the sign of “The Ship”.  It remained a pub with that name until it was radically rebuilt in 1879 and reopened the following year as “The Albion Wine Stores”, later known simply as “The Albion”.  It closed as a public house in 1994. Notable Owners: In 1842 the pub was sold to local brewer Thomas Morse and it remained in the ownership of his descendants until 1936. Little known fact: The following short report was published in the Norfolk News - Saturday 25 October 1879: “LOWESTOFT. Discovery of a Skeleton. On Friday week workmen engaged in altering the premises known as the Ship Inn, Lowestoft, discovered a human skeleton under the floor of one of the rooms. It is that of adult. Nothing has been discovered to give a clue to the cause of the interment in such a place”. Nothing more is known about this mystery skeleton.