Assembly Rooms

The rebuild – entrance facing the Marketplace rather than west; steps to the entrance and the interior much as we know it today has also been dated to 1817.

However, a very similar renovation but without the door change has been described in newspapers in 1841.

ASSEMBLY ROOMS; 1776-78, with south front added 1817 by William Newham. South front stuccoed.

EXTERIOR: west front of one storey in a 5-window range. Central 3 bays broken forward and rebuilt in 1950s.

INTERIOR: Suspended C20 ceiling. Gallery at north end.
(Norfolk Archaeological Unit: Sites and Monuments Record).
Grade II listed.

The 1837 election. Chairing the member. This painting is in the Swaffham Heritage Museum

In its time it is has also served many different needs. In 1912 it was a temporary billet for guardsmen when a large military exercise held around the town was flooded out.

During the First World War it was a temporary resting place for Belgian refugees. In World War II it was a canteen for the USAF personnel stationed at North Pickenham. Postwar it served as a canteen for Hamond Grammar School boys.

It was from here also that the 19th century National Election results of the West Norfolk and then the South-West Norfolk constituency were announced.

Today it hosts concerts, exhibitions, dances, sales and The Friday Indoor Market – an extension of Swaffham’s famed Saturday Market and Auction. It was renovated and restored in 2023.

Children in fancy dress ca 1947.

Grenadier Guards were billeted here in 1912.