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Queen Street was known as 'Red Well Street' until the early nineteenth century, and this is the name that appears on a map of Norwich in the Soane collection (SM 57a/3/9), dated 1789, to which Mr Foster's premises have been added in pencil, as well as premises in Tombland and St Martin's Street.
Survey drawings and preliminary designs for alterations to the premises were made in 1828 (drawings 48-66). Substantial interior alterations were required to make the premises suitable for banking and accommodation for the sub-agent, Mr Welsden (drawings 67-73) including the construction of a treasure vault (drawings 74-75) and the enlargement of the kitchen (drawings 79-82).The new bank was opened in 1829 but closed in 1852 and sold two years later.
The upper part of the branch bank was demolished before the second world war when a shoe factory behind was extended, but was reconstructed in 1969. Both Mr Gidney's premises to the right of the court and the Foster and Unthank offices to the left do survive and are listed Grade II and the yard is still known as 'Old Bank of England Court'.
Literature:
W. Marston Acres, The Bank of England from Within, 1694-1900, Vol. II, 1931, pp. 435-6; N. Pevsner and B. Wilson, Norfolk 1: Norwich and North-East, 1997, pp. 293-4; J. Plunkett, George Plunkett's Photographs of Old Norwich, <http://www.georgeplunkett.co.uk>; English Heritage, Old Bank of England Court (Right Hand Side), <www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk>; English Heritage, Old Bank of England Court (Left Hand Side), <www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk>
Tom Drysdale, March 2013
Sir John Soane's collection includes some 30,000 architectural, design and topographical drawings which is a very important resource for scholars worldwide. His was the first architect’s collection to attempt to preserve the best in design for the architectural profession in the future, and it did so by assembling as exemplars surviving drawings by great Renaissance masters and by the leading architects in Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries and his near contemporaries such as Sir William Chambers, Robert Adam and George Dance the Younger. These drawings sit side by side with 9,000 drawings in Soane’s own hand or those of the pupils in his office, covering his early work as a student, his time in Italy and the drawings produced in the course of his architectural practice from 1780 until the 1830s.
Browse (via the vertical menu to the left) and search results for Drawings include a mixture of Concise catalogue records – drawn from an outline list of the collection – and fuller records where drawings have been catalogued in more detail (an ongoing process).
Contents of Norwich: Bank of England branch: survey drawings, designs for alterations and related documents for 17 premises including the selected one in Queen Street, 1827-1829 (91)
- Survey drawings of Mr Tomlinson's premises in Castle Street and Davey Place (3)
- Preliminary designs for alterations to Mr Tomlinson's premises in Castle Street and Davey Place, one dated October 1827 (3)
- Revised variant (unexecuted) designs for alterations to Mr Tomlinson's premises in Castle Street and Davey Place, December 1827 (3)
- Further alternative (unexecuted) designs for alterations to Mr Tomlinson's premises in Castle Street and Davey Place, April 1828 (4)
- 14 Memorandum concerning Mr Tomlinson's premises in Castle Street and Davey Place, June 1828
- Survey drawings and correspondence for Mr J.H.Yallop's premises at No.13 Davey Place, July-August 1827 (7)
- Survey drawings and rough design for alterations to Mrs Davey's premises in Davey Place (4)
- Survey drawing of premises in Gentleman's Walk, Norwich
- Survey drawing and note of particulars for Mrs Smith's premises in Market Place (2)
- Survey plans and letter related to Benjamin Palmer Titter's premises, 32 Pottergate Street, June 1827 (4)
- Survey drawing and letter related to Messrs Trivett and Cozens' premises in Rampant Horse Street (2)
- Survey drawing of an estate in St Benedicts formerly belonging to Thomas Starling Day and entered from Pottergate
- Survey drawings of Messrs Harman & Co.'s premises, St Giles Broad Street, June 1827 (5)
- Rough survey drawing of a property in St Giles' Street
- Survey drawing of a property in St Giles' Street
- Sale particulars and preliminary design for alterations to Mr Geldart's premises in Tombland (2)
- Survey drawing of a house in Tombland
- Survey drawing of Robert Hawke's property on the corner of Upper Market and Bethel Street
- Survey drawing of an unidentified premises
- Survey drawings of Mr Foster's premises, Queen Street, 1828 (2)
- Design for alterations to Mr Foster's premises, Queen Street, unexecuted, April 1828
- Survey drawings of Mr Foster's Premises, Queen Street, June 1828 (5)
- Survey drawings and preliminary designs for alterations to Mr Foster's premises, Queen Street, unexecuted, June 1828 (6)
- Survey drawing of the premises occupied by Mr Gidney, Queen Street
- Preliminary variant designs for alterations to the premises in Queen Street, unexecuted, June 1828 (3)
- Survey drawings and designs for alterations to the front door, Queen Street (3)
- Designs for alterations to the branch bank, Queen Street, March 1829 (4)
- Designs for the strong room, Queen Street, March and May 1829 (2)
- Survey drawings of the kitchens in the branch bank (2)
- Working drawings for entrance door with alternative designs for affixing the panels to the door stiles, May 1829
- Designs (with variants) for alterations to the branch bank and letter from Thomas Heath regarding Mr Welsden's proposal for alterations to the kitchen, November 1829 (3)
- Design for alterations to the back kitchen, including the installation of the chimneypiece and range from the present kitchen
- Survey drawing, December 1829
- Survey drawings of the branch bank, after alterations, February 1830 (4)
- Unfinished design for alterations to a two-storey room in an unidentified premises