Pitt Street
Pitt Street Shortly before the war the
idea was mooted of having a more direct road linking
Thorpe and City Stations, following much the same route
as that since adopted by St Crispin’s Road. To this
end a start was made by constructing a short length of
carriageway between St George’s Street and Pitt
Street, coming out opposite St Martin’s Lane.There, until demolished in September 1937, stood a pleasing pair of semi-detached Georgian cottages, Nos 33 and 35 Pitt Street (left). A central doorway gave access to a covered passageway that led to a small chapel at the rear. In 1754 the Reverends John and Charles Wesley paid their first visit to Norwich, but it was not until 1769 that their followers built this as their first settled place of worship in the city. Later acquired by the Baptists, it was enlarged in 1818 when a stone tablet was placed over the doorway inscribed “MDCCCXVIII Providence Chapel”. |
 Pitt Street until quite
recent times was lined with houses typical of the
eighteenth century, mostly of two main storeys, with an
attic floor above, and with a pillared doorway providing
one of the main external features. War damage,
redevelopment and street widening have all since taken
their toll, however, and the last of these mansions, No
67, was demolished in June 1973. This house had in its
latter years been occupied as a shoe factory
(right) and its front doorway had been removed to provide
loading facilities in what had formerly been the entrance
hall. It had, however, retained several interesting
features, including some good internal woodwork.
Externally the facade was divided into sections by four
brick pilasters having stone caps and bases, which
supported a wide cornice below attic level. All the sash
windows had nicely curved heads, each with a small
central keystone. |
 Since being bisected by
the inner link road, the southern part of Pitt Street has
been renamed as part of Duke Street. That part retaining
the name, from the inner link road to St Augustine’s
Street, has changed greatly. My photograph of its western
side taken in 1936 shows a continuous row of
eighteenth-century houses similar in style but varied in
detail, particularly in regard to their rooflines and
front doorways. Nos 60 and 62, in the centre of
the picture (left), were both victims of the raids of
27th and 29th April 1942. |
 No 60 appeared to be of a
rather later date than its neighbour, with the pillars
flanking its doorway (right) carved in a style
made popular by the Adams brothers and their followers.
Although the doorway of No 62 seemed earlier, it had a
“lion-head” doorknocker, probably added during
the Regency period, when a considerable number of such
knockers made their appearance as a symbol of patriotism.
Inside the house its main feature was the staircase, a
highly ornate one with hand-carved “barley
sugar” banisters and elaborate consoled step-ends.At the time of Henry VIII the part still known as Pitt Street was known as St Olave’s Street, from a church of that name situated to the north of Cherry Lane. The historian Francis Blomefield recorded that the church was commonly called “St Tooley’s” and that it was demolished in 1546 when the parish was united to that of St George Colegate. The street’s present name was derived not as one might imagine from the great statesman but simply from the presence of an open pit here, at the west end of St Olaves’ churchyard. It is said to have been filled in at the beginning of the eighteenth century. At about that time, too, the former churchyard was known as the Cherry Ground, a name perpetuated by Cherry Lane but no longer by a public house. The Cherry Tree was renamed the Golden Sovereign some years ago; it has since been closed down. Text and photographs Copyright © G.A.F.Plunkett 2001 |