Garsett House in Norwich’s city centre is a striking coral-coloured Elizabethan building. Standing on the corner of Princes Street and St Andrew’s Street, it has mullioned, leaded windows and a grand Georgian portico entrance, with each of its three jettied storeys jutting out above the floor below. On the right side, below the chimney, is a plaster relief carving of a wooden boat with white sails, and the building’s other name: Armada House.
Built in 1589 —the year after the Spanish Armada was launched and defeated— the Grade II-listed Garsett House was constructed using timber from a sunken Spanish ship.
The Spanish Armada was a fleet of around 130 ships with 30,000 men onboard launched by King Philip II of Spain in 1588 as part of a planned invasion of England. It was eventually defeated by the English and forced to retreat via Scotland and Ireland, where several remaining ships were destroyed in a storm. The victory was greeted as holy approval for the Protestant cause, and the storms as an act of divine intervention.
The house, though, was built for —and named after— an alderman called Robert Garsett, who died in 1611. It was originally considerably larger, but part of the building was cut back in 1898 to make space for a new tram line.
In 1864, it was used as a school and owned by a solicitor called Ernest Kent. On his death, Kent bequeathed the building to the Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society – an event which is commemorated on a plaque in the grand entrance hall.
Since then, it has served as a dental surgery, doctor’s office, and, most recently, an office space for some 20 employees.
In 2022, it caught the attention of its current owner, property developer Dan Trivedi, who lives in Norwich. “I’d driven past that building hundreds of times. I love the building,” says Trivedi. “When it came up for sale, I was so excited to buy it and bring it back to its original use [as a lovely family home].”
Trivedi, 40, bought Garsett House for £432,000 at the end of 2022. He submitted plans to convert the four storey, 2,099-square-foot building from commercial space into housing the following year, enlisting an experienced heritage consultant. These were rejected by Norwich City Council, but a new application, submitted earlier this year, is still awaiting a decision. It has been delayed, he says, by the council’s new nutrient neutrality guidance, which works to ensure that new development does not adversely impact protected natural areas, and puts plans under additional scrutiny.
In the meantime, Trivedi put forward further plans to adapt the office space, including installing a new kitchen and two modern bathrooms, more appropriate to a residential property, which were completed last year.
Downstairs, for example, he replaced the commercial toilet with a single bathroom, retaining the previous office kitchen as a utility space and adding a new, larger kitchen with an island and a view over the street. The basement was cleared and a further bathroom was added upstairs. There are four former offices that could be used as bedrooms.
Trivedi also repaired the heritage windows —“none of them were replaced”— and restored many of the house’s original features, like the wooden beams upstairs. “The refurbishment is uncompromising,” says Trivedi. “There was nothing too good for it – it was just doing everything to the absolute best standard that I could achieve.”
Trivedi’s refurbishment was completed in April 2023 but, to his frustration, the building has sat empty since, waiting for the change of use to be formalised.
“Because Norwich City Council don’t have any plans to mitigate the nutrient neutrality, we’re now in a position where it will sit there for another two to five years, we’ve been told, without the ability to formalise the application. We’ve decided to sell it, and hopefully someone can buy it, live there and appreciate and enjoy what we’ve done. When the plan is formalised, they’ll benefit massively from the uplift in value.”
Garsett House will be auctioned with Auction House East Anglia on Wednesday 23 October, with a guide price of £350,000 to £400,000. Viewings will take place on 11 and 16 October.
To Trivedi, the house’s city centre location is one of its biggest draws, making it likely to appeal to young professionals or retired couples keen to be close to the city’s bars and restaurants.
“It’s so unique – everybody knows the property. Its history —the Armada House, made from a dismantled old ship— is just fantastic,” he says. “It’s a gorgeous house.”
