Trinity Guildhall

Just one street back from The historic quayside in King's Lynn, Norfolk, England is a striking building known as Trinity Guildhall. Trinity guildhall was built in 1428 and  in the late 19th century when it was incorporated  into King's Lynn's town hall. The Guildhall name is often applied to the entire building. The building is thus known as the Guildhall or as the Town Hall and the original part sometimes called the "Stone Hall". The Guildhall itself replaced an earlier building which had been built  for a religious  guild (not to be confused with Merchants and Trade guilds). This guild, the Guild of the Holy Trinity was suppressed by Edward VI in 1547 under the Dissolution of Colleges Act. Edward's father Henry  VIII had started the suppression  of the religious guilds and chantries and both Monarchs are widely accepted  as financially motivated as the seized properties were used to fund wars against France and Scotland.

After the dissolution the eastern part of the undrcroft was converted to a prison (1571) and 47 years later the western part was converted to a type of workhouse for people deemed to be lazy and workshy,  known at the time as a "house of correction".

The most notable  feature of the external architecture  is the chequerboard  pattern  produced by a building  technique called flatwork in which the natural  light coloured ashlar stonework  alternates with panels  of  darker flints held together with lime mortar in such a way that the stone and flint surfaces are in the same plane . Typically  the flushwork  would be a facing on a thick rubble wall  ( https://www.groundworkgallery.com/groundwork_projects/stones-of-kings-lynn/) and the flints were originally  used to reduce the amount  of expensive ashlar used. By the 15th century it had become a decorative  device in it's own right with the chequered pattern used on the Guildhall being known as "daipering". The horizontal /vertical  pattern  of chequering used here is less common than a diagonal pattern . Flints are not local to King's Lynn and would have been imported from some distance. The ashlar stone is a Lincolnshire  limestone, atypical of East Anglian flushwork   where limestone  imported from France is common. The working of the flints (knapping) to produce the flat surfaces and the careful  selection of the flints to minimise gaps was also expensive.

The first extension of the guildhall was a front porch (which replaced an exterior staircase) built in 1624. The porch was later modified with the addition of the arms of Elizabeth  I. Some 40 years later the arms of the reigning monarch Charles II were also added. In 1985, to provide space for the building municipal functions, the building was again extended, using the same, distinctive, architectural  style, leaving the building looking as if it was all constructed at once.. 

 The interior has suffered a little from the many municipal uses but the hall does hold some important historic artifacts. One of these is a medieval   jewelled chalice known as King John's chalice. It did not, however have anything to do with King John and is not part of King John's jewels famously lost in the Wash in 1216. The hall does however house King John's original 13th century charter for the town of King's Lynn and the first ever painting of King George VI and his queen, painted in 1937 just after the abdication of his brother.

The Guildhall sits on "Saturday Market Place". It sits as a remarkable  architectural  gem in a town of extensive architectural  and historic interest.