Independent House has a history of being a residential property, a hotel, a family home, and a care home. The property that we know today started life as two separate houses and we believe was converted into one larger building in the 1930s.
The address of these two properties started off as 5 and 7 Thorpe Mansions on Foundry Bridge Road. In 1906 it changed to 10 and 12 Thorpe Road and then onto 18 and 20 Thorpe Road in the 1930’s.
The houses stand on land that was previously part of the Aspland House Estate and were sold as building plots in 1891 by the vendor I. E. Coaks(b.1830) a local solicitor who lived in Thorpe Hamlet.
Plots 6, 7, and 8 were purchased by a local builder T. H. Yelf for £750.00, whose building yard was across the road in buildings connected to the Train Station. Yelf then built the double property’s of 18-20 we have today.
The first Foundry Bridge was built in 1811 and the road leading up to Thorpe next to Norwich, away from the new bridge was in turn named Foundry Bridge Road. Prince of Wales Road was completed in 1862. Three large houses existed in this area. Aspland House, Wakefield House, and Thorpe Hamlet House. In 1844 the first Thorpe Station was built on open meadowland to the south of Thorpe Hamlet House. The present Station was built in 1886 in the grounds of Thorpe Hamlet House.
This map below is from the early 1800 and shows all three houses and the land on which Thorpe Train Station is currently located.
May 3rd 1886.
The building plots were sold by the vendors I. E. Coaks of Norwich on Monday 25th May, 1891. The sale was carried out by Messers. Baker and Sons. The sale was advertised as Building Plots or a Station Hotel, Shops and dwelling houses and sold in 22 lots.
In May 1879
Architect Mr. Goldsworth submitted these plans as a suggestion of design based on the plots to be sold. The drawing shows a pair of houses and gives the vendor a better idea of layout for residential purposes.
The 1891 drawing shows Independent House as plots 6, 7, and 8. This was purchased by Mr. Kelf for a sum of £730.00.
The neighbouring plots, 9, 10, and 11 also sold for £587.00 to a Mr. Fred Dowson who went on to build a house for himself called “Mugs Hall”. This house was named through his business as a Commission Bookmaker Agent.
1901
The 1901 census shows that 18 and 20 were two separate properties and were also numbered 10 and 12. The 1901 census shows William Sanders Dods was at no 10. He was a Major in the Army. He was born in 1862 in Great Yarmouth. Major Dods lived there with his wife Emmie, two sons and three servants. By 1911 the family had moved to “Coonoor” on Yarmouth Road in Thorpe, and when he retired from the Army, he ran the Far East Heroes headquarters from this his new house on Yarmouth Road.
In the 1911 census no 10 became no 18 and Frederick Preston lived here with his wife Emily, two children and two servants. Frederick Preston was a Physician Surgeon at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. He was aged forty seven in 1911 and was born in Popular in London.
At no 12 in the 1901 census lived Mary Brett who ran a boarding house. Mary was born in 1866 in Wells. Also living at no 12 was another boarder and one servant. Mary was still in the house when it changed to no 20. Also living here were four boarders and two servants.
It appears that 18 and 20 were converted into one building as a hotel run by Mrs. Walker before the Second World War. The document below shows that the building was hit by an incendiary bomb in the early hours of 27th June 1942.
This was one the largest raids on the City of Norwich which included the Cathedral, Thorpe Station, St Pauls Church and many others. It is estimated that 20,000 incendiaries and some thirty-three high-explosive bombs were dropped on the city in this raid. One or more of these devices set the row of buildings from no 8 to no 20 Thorpe Road alight. The top floor and first floor of 18-20 were destroyed. This amount of damage could explain why Independent House is the only one in the row with a flat roof as of today.
Arthur John Cleveland O.B.E.
Records show that the Cleveland family lived at 10 Thorpe Road from 1908 untill at least 1915. Arthur Cleveland (b.1872) had previously lived at 34 The Close, Norwich with his wife Evelyn, two children and a domestic servant
Arthur studied medicine at Guys Hospital and moved to Norwich in 1902. He was a physician at the Jenny Lind Hospital before serving as a physician at the Thorpe War Hospital, being unfit for service. For his services he was awarded the O.B.E. Cleveland was a tall, handsome man, gifted with a logical and far-seeing brain, but with self-confessed streaks of laziness and impatience. He had a special interest in neurology and dermatology, but in the annuals of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital he was mostly remembered for his services in committee and administration. During the critical years, 1938-1943, he was Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Hospital. At the Age of seventy he was elected Lord Major of Norwich. He wrote A History of the Norfolk and Norwich from 1900-1945. Mr. Cleveland died in October 1957.
All information in this article has been made in good faith and represents the authors judgement based upon the information obtained from a range of sources, but neither the author or the publisher can accept responsibility or liability for any error or omissions
Pictures 1-5 are with the kind permission of the Norfolk Record Office.
Credits: Dale Wiseman 2023
