Description

1188/0/10149 ST GREGORYS ALLEY
01-DEC-09 6A AND 7

II
House, converted to a shop and offices in the early C20. Early C19 over a mid-C15 undercroft.

MATERIALS: The building is constructed of gault brick laid in Flemish bond under a gabled roof clad with pantiles.

PLAN: L-shaped plan with a rear cross wing to the south enclosing a small rear yard which has access only from the ground-floor shop at No. 6A. The L-plan is probably a direct survivor of the plan of the mid-C15 house which once stood on the site, with a barrel-vaulted brick undercroft under the front range parallel to the street.

EXTERIOR: The east elevation facing St. Gregory's Alley is of three storeys in two window bays and the ground floor reflects the disposition of a shop to the ground floor and offices on the two storeys above. To the right (north) is a stuccoed and rusticated brick architrave to the doorway, with a half-glazed door under a plain semi-circular overlight. This leads to an entrance hallway and stairs to the upper floors. To the left is an early C20 shop display window with a plate-glass window to the left of the recessed half-glazed door and above is the canopy box with scrolled end projections. The first floor is lit through two 2/2 unhorned early C19 sash windows with stone sills and painted gauged skewback arches, and the second-floor by two two-light casements which have similar sills and arches. There is a projecting timber cornice and an internal gable end stack to the north shared with the adjacent building (No. 8). The rear elevations have been rendered and fitted with replacement windows apart from the ground-floor 2/2 horned sash to the cross wing.

INTERIOR: The UNDERCROFT is reached from a manhole cover in the rear yard which covers an access shute. It is built of plastered brick laid mainly in stretcher bond, the covering plaster surviving almost intact apart from small areas in the vault and end walls. The structure is about five metres long north to south, about three metres wide east to west and is about two and a half metres to the apex of the pointed barrel vault which runs parallel to the street. In each of the north and south walls is an arched recess for the storage of barrels and in the north-west corner is a raking C18 brick buttress which probably marks the site of a blocked internal access to the house above. In the east wall is a flight of seven brick steps with timber treads which follows a slightly curved course up to the pavement in front of the building, but the opening to the street is now blocked.

The ground floor consists of a shop to the south which uses both of the rooms and the rear wing as a single space. The entrance doorway to the north leads to a plain hallway altered in the late C20 which leads to a simple winder staircase at the west end, with square newel posts and a boarded balustrade. This continues to the top storey. The two rooms to each floor of the street range have both been knocked into open office spaces in the C20 and decorated accordingly, although several four-panelled C19 doors remain. The first-floor room has the marks of a blocked doorway which formerly opened into the adjoining No. 6 St. Gregory's Alley.

The building is listed particularly, but not exclusively, because of the undercroft which forms part of an important collection of undercrofts within the city walls.

The building has group value with St. Gregory's Church (listed Grade l) and Nos. 4, 5 and 6 St. Gregory's Alley (listed Grade II).

HISTORY
Norwich was until the C18 the second most important city in England after London. The city expanded rapidly after the construction of the Norman cathedral and castle. However, it was not until the late C18 that there was any systematic expansion beyond the early C14 city walls. Within this enclosed space the medieval street patterns remain recognisable today, and St. Gregory's Alley is one of the oldest thoroughfares, with the west end of St. Gregory's church pressing closely on the street. The C14 church fabric is only four metres from the east elevation of Nos. 6A and 7.

The River Wensum is very low-lying but the ground rises steeply on either side and the city is unexpectedly hilly. It is this topography which explains the great number of undercrofts which survive within the walls (42 are listed, but there is evidence of about fifty more), as they were cut into sloping ground to provide a flat stable platform for the buildings above them. There are two main forms of undercroft; those with ribs and those with simple barrel vaults. The very early ones such as the early C12 undercroft under Wensum Lodge on King Street tend to be ribbed and constructed of stone, but from the C14 brick was the usual material and resulted in some of the best undercrofts in the country. These are important for the study of early brick in Norwich as the Buildings of England volume explains: 'for C15 use [of brick] we are largely restricted to the undercrofts ... of the pre 1507 period.' Their subterranean character explains the high incidence of survival, as replacement buildings could be constructed upon them without disturbing the older fabric, a quality very well illustrated in Elm Hill where several survived the destructive fire of 1507. For this reason only a handful of undercrofts in Norwich have contemporary buildings above them. A secondary use was for secure storage, important for the merchants who tended to own the buildings, and for this internal access was often provided. Some undercrofts also had direct access from the street by means of brick steps, and both these features are identifiable in the mid C15 brick undercroft under Nos. 6A and 7 St. Gregory's Alley.

SOURCES
Anthony Emery, Town Houses of Medieval Britain (2003), 143-153
Nikolaus Pevsner and Bill Wilson, Buildings of England. Norfolk 1 (1997)
Robert Smith and Alan Carter, Function and Site: Aspects of Norwich Buildings in Vernacular Architecture, Vol.14, (1983)

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION
Nos. 6A and 7 St. Gregory's Alley is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* The undercroft is an important example of a barrel-vaulted brick chamber.
* The undercroft has good surviving features, including evidence of the original internal staircase and the external curving brick steps up to the street. Intact plaster on the walls and the presence of arched storage niches adds to the interest.
* The extensive use of C15 brick in the undercroft is an early and important example.
* The building has group value with St. Gregory's Church (listed Grade l) and Nos. 4, 5 and 6 St. Gregory's Alley (listed Grade II).

LISTING NGR: TG 22824 08715

Reasons for Listing

Nos. 6A and 7 St. Gregory's Alley is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* The undercroft is an important example of a barrel-vaulted brick chamber .
* The undercroft has good surviving features, including evidence of the original internal staircase and the external curving brick steps up to the street. Intact plaster on the walls and the presence of arched storage niches adds to the interest.
* The extensive use of C15 brick for the undercroft is an early and important example.
* The building has group value with St. Gregory's Church (listed Grade l) and Nos. 4, 5 and 6 St. Gregory's Alley (listed Grade II).

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26672703

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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