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Duke's Head Hotel
Duke's Head Hotel
	The Duke's Head Hotel
	Norfolk
General information
Location	King's Lynn, King's Lynn and West Norfolk, Norfolk, England
Address	Tuesday Market Place; Kings Lynn; Norfolk; PE30 1JS; United Kingdom
Coordinates	52°45′21.85″N 0°23′42.31″E / 52.7560694°N 0.3950861°E
Opening	Built in 1683
Technical details
Floor count	4 (connecting lift)
Design and construction
Architect(s)	attributed to Henry Bell
Other information
Number of rooms	81 en-suite bedrooms
Number of suites	3 conferencing suites
Number of restaurants	1 (Turners Restaurant)
Number of bars	2 (Massey & Co/Function Bar)
Parking	Yes, but limited
Website
	Hotel Website
Listed Building – Grade II
Designated	1 December 1951
Reference no.	1212229

The Duke's Head Hotel is a 4 star hotel in the English town of King's Lynn within the county of Norfolk in the United Kingdom.^[2] The hotel has been a grade II listed building since 1 December 1951.

Location

The hotel is situated in the centre of King's Lynn and is on the eastern side of Tuesday Market Place. It is 0.7 miles (1.1 km) west of King's Lynn railway station.^[3] The hotel is 44.0 miles (70.8 km) west of the city of Norwich. The nearest airport is also at Norwich and that is 44.5 miles (71.6 km) west of the hotel.

History

The Duke's Head was built in 1683 for a King's Lynn Member of Parliament, Sir John Turner,^[4] and is attributed to the King's Lynn architect Henry Bell.^[5] Bell designed and built many buildings in King's Lynn and Norfolk including the Customs House in King's Lynn.

The Duke's Head in the 1930s was noted for its excellent English cuisine, appearing in Florence White's guidebook, Where Shall We Eat or Put Up? in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. A contributor to the guidebook, identified as a friend of Florence White's, wrote: "My husband and I had dinner there this Whitsun and were very much struck by the excellence of the menu. I cannot remember each course, but do most certainly recollect the excellent tiny asparagus served with the roast duke--quite evidently that afternoon's gathering from the hotel or nearby garden, and also the general 'Englishness' of the whole meal, ending with really good cheese."^[6]

After World War II, however, the hotel went into some state of decline. It became part of Trust House Forte when Trust Houses Ltd. merged with Forte Holdings in 1970. One of the most infamous recollections of the state of the hotel and the quality of its food comes in a July 18 1971 letter that poet Philip Larkin wrote to novelist Barbara Pym. "One forgets that nobody stays in hotels these days except businessmen and American tourists: the food is geared to the business lunch or the steak-platter trade: portion control is rampant, and the material cheap anyway. . . . The presence of the hotel in the Good Food Guide is nothing short of a farce. Of course it's a Trust House, which guarantees a kind of depersonalized dullness. Never stay at a Trust House,' Larkin warns.^[7]

The building was facaded^{[clarification needed]} in the 70s/80s, and very little remains of the original interior.

Ghostly manifestations

The Duke's Head is reputedly haunted.^{[citation needed]}^[8] It stands on the site of an ancient inn called the Gryffin. There is a red lady who is thought to be a haunting manifestation of a woman who killed herself over her two lovers.^[9]^{[unreliable source?]} There is also a ghostly maid servant who was executed in Tuesday Market Place for poisoning her mistress.^[10]^{[unreliable source?]}

References

^ Listed Building schedule
^ OS Explorer Map 236” – King's Lynn, Downham Market & Swaffham. ISBN 0-319-23808-3.
^ County A to Z Atlas, Street & Road maps Norfolk, ISBN 978 1 84348 614 5
^ John Turner-Blue Plaque Retrieved 19 January 2013
^ Local History website Retrieved 19 January 2013
^ White, Florence (1936). Where Shall We Eat or Put Up? in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. London: Practical Press, Ltd. p. 167.
^ Piepenbring, Dan (2 June 2015). ""The Spit of Recollection"". Paris Review. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
^ Hutchings, Ed (11 February 2024). ""A Historic Walk around King's Lynn"". Discover Britain. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
^ The Red Lady Retrieved 19 January 2013
^ Haunted King’s Lynn Retrieved 19 January 2013