116 High Street
Current
116
High Street
Lowestoft
NR32 1HN
United Kingdom
History
Formerly No. 108, prior to 1891
After the second World War, Chilvers had moved in who dealt with house furnishings. In the early hours of February 4th 1941, during an air raid, a bomb landed at the rear of the premises which blasted out the shop and rendered it derelict. In the 1950's the building was demolished and rebuilt then the Eastern Gas Board, opened for business in 1958, by the 1960's the Gas Board had moved out and F. T Ltd had moved in and the shop went back to selling house furnishings. By 1998 the shop was the premises of Homeworks and in 2016 it's the Norfolk leather Centre.
Current Address: 116 High Street Old Address: Formerly 108 High Street. East or West Side: West side When built: This single story shop was erected in the 1950s replacing one which had been badly damaged during the 2nd World War. Brief history/features: The earlier building on this site was an attractive two storey building of white brick and Bath stone. It was designed by a local architect named George Glover. The building was completed in 1878 and officially opened by the temperance movement as “The Cocoa Tree Tavern” on 23 November that year. It replaced four ancient alms houses which were demolished. Later it was converted into a shop which was severely damaged by a bomb that fell at the rear of the premises on 4 February 1941. Former Notable Owners: The land on which the Cocoa Tree Tavern was built belonged to the parish.
Little known fact: In 1871 the occupants of the four Alms Houses were: Mary Barnes, aged 78; Elizabeth Spurgeon aged 84 together with her daughter Susan, aged 52; Mary Ann Salter, widow, aged 72; Sarah Jackson, widow, aged 80; and Mary Barnes aged 78. Among the six inhabitants of the Alms Houses ten years earlier were Letitia Butcher, aged 82 and Henry Butcher, aged 59, both of whom were blind.
Architecture
One of my favourite pictures. This is Mr Taylor, the tailor, an outfitters shop, 116 High Street, and it's uncertain who these people are at the front, I think that these are probably the employees of this business. This was as you know built as a temperance pub. The Cocoa Tree Tavern. Judging by some of the plans that still exist, downstairs was a coffee shop and comfortable places to sit, but on the first floor there was in actual fact a large kind of conference room, a reading room, and above that was the accommodation for the manager and his family. And so it's almost likely that a lot of these people would be working behind the scenes possibly upstairs because as a tailor, Mr Taylor, you could go there and have your clothes made to measure or you'd just go there to be outfitted off the peg.
The tailor took over the Cocoa Tree just after the end probably of the First World War and so this picture probably dates from the 1920s. And the men are definitely wearing some of the most fashionable suits of the day. And obviously these are the important staff. I wouldn't be at all surprised if this man standing here isn't actually Mr Taylor. He's stood slightly apart from them.
Of course by the 1920s the August Bank Holiday carnival was one of the highlights of the town so this might well be just up for the carnival. One other interesting thing as well, there's this wonderful wonderful arched doorway here, which is part of the building which presumably takes you through to the back or through and up some stairs to um the next floor, I don't know. The reason I pointed that out to you is because when we come to the next photo this is the same building, the tailor had moved out and Chilvers, the furniture store owner had moved in. Here's that wonderful arched doorway and you can see this was all boarded up and the place is shut. It's because there was a very very near miss really from a German bomb that I think I'm right in saying landed in the garden at the back and did substantial damage and this is almost opposite number 100 with the modern frontage so I'm wondering if a lot of the debris that flew off this didn't damage number 100, but you can see this is blocked up and standing completely empty. This must be late 1940s I should think. And of course, presumably because it was so badly damaged it was unsafe and had to be demolished and the building was rebuilt, but obviously to save money this is the end product today. It's a single storey and the interesting thing about it as well is it's not even on the same footprint as the original building because it's set back from the road slightly whereas Mr Taylor's shop came out as far this. The old shop was taken down brick by brick because it was so badly damaged. This concreted area here, it probably marks the height and the extent of the original one and the brickwork has all been badly damaged. CREDIT: Ivan Bunn from transcript - Poetry People - High Street Histories
Add new comment