Swaffham Kebab and Pizza House

House, now shop. Early C17,
altered and converted late C19
to shop. Grade II listed.

The house on the corner of Ash close was once the “Prince of Wales” pub or beerhouse. The first mention is in 1869 when the landlord Robert Pointer was refused a licence for keeping a disorderly house.

He moved away and his place was taken by a succession of innkeepers until 1931 when it was sold and closed a year later.

As trade thinned over the years, landlords often took a second job. In the case of both Robert Pointer and George Goodbody, landlord from 1901 to 1927, it was that of a bricklayer.

The Central Café was run by Charlie Hawkins who died in 1963 and his wife Hebe.

Previously he had run a tobacconist’s and confectionery shop on Church Walk and before that a hairdressers and tobacconists on Station Street where they lived.

At one time in the 1980s it served as a laundrette (Swanclean D/C) before becoming a fish and chip shop and now a kebab and pizza shop.