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Picture source: Darkstar

The Old Sun was situated on Market Hill. This grade-I listed pub was established in the fourteenth century and is one of the most illustrious inns in England. The diarist Samuel Pepys and the writer John Evelyn both recorded visits, and Oliver Cromwell is said to have stayed there during the Civil War. It is especially renowned for the ornate plasterwork, or 'pargetting', on its facade, depicting the legendary figures of Tom Hickathrift and the Wisbech Giant. Although the Sun is no longer an inn, the building survives today, housing an antique shop.

Listed building details:

Shop, was once part of the Sun Inn, which included Nos 25 & 27 Church Street (qv) and 17 Market Hill (qv). Mid C14, altered C16, frontage decorated C17, restored C19. Two storeys. Timber-framed, plastered with elaborate pargetting, peg-tiled roof. L shaped plan, part of H hall house with jettied cross-wing and hall. Front N elevation: similar to Nos 25 & 27 in that it was reworked in late C19, all windows and doorways either remade or heavily restored in Tudor style. All upper windows, and one lower, have casements with intersecting cast-iron hexagonal latticed glazing bars, as a building style. Roofs were re-raftered with side purlins and new barge-boards. Remaining old features include jetty joists, cross-wing door spandrel boards and extensive late C17 pargetting. Elevation comprises hall at E end with C14 cross-entry door to E, 2-centred arched head with quatrefoils and trefoils in spandrel panels. Door of over-lapping nailed arrised boards. Above, projecting porch with 3-light iron latticed window, gable barge-boards rebuilt with Jacobean arabesque decoration, deep original supporting braces. To W, C17 pargetted motif of swag with birds. Slightly projecting gabled bay window in similar style to porch with Jacobean decoration, ground and first floor windows both of 5 lights, ground has upper transom, both iron lattices. Cambered tie-beam with decoration similar to barge-boards, date I W 1625. Between windows is pargetted bird in roundel. To W, tall jettied solar cross-wing, ground floor shop window and door, all C19 restoration. Window, 2 sections, each with mullion and 2 transoms, door with overlight and upper glazing, 2x2 panes and 2 lower inset boarded panels continues design from windows. First floor, 4-light window with iron latticed casement, gable projects over double tie-beams and facia board, all moulded, gable pargetted with upper face and lower date of 1676. 3 pargetted panels between windows, central bird and outer stylised leaf scrolls. Rear, S elevation: irregular fenestration, but 2 gabled, timber-framed and plastered units corresponding to medieval form. C19 stack in Tudor style over hall unit, hall unit has been expanded round stack as a 2-storeyed gabled extension. Ground floor windows, one sash, 3x4 panes, one casement, 2x2 panes, one single paned, fixed, also, plain C20 door with 2 upper glazed panes. First floor windows, 1 triple sash 1x4,3x4,1x4 panes, one sash, 4x4 panes. Interior: original framing mainly obscured by C19 plastering. Hall has inserted floor and ground floor central room (hall area) has early C18 shallow recessed panelling and bolection moulded fireplace in lateral stack on rear wall. Spandrels boards of rear cross-entry door survive, plain but with hollow chamfers to 2-centred arch. Also, cut framing of hall service division partly visible. Solar cross-wing jetty joists have centre-tenoned jointing. Old stud and wattle groove marks imply that ground floor hall `high' end wall was recessed under cross-wing to create a canopy at `high' end of the hall. First floor plain now, except for part of the tie-beam and braces of a spere partition truss of the hall. The medieval framing is seen from the roof space with crown-post roofs to both hall and cross-wing. Also the high end of the hall seen to have upper multiple decorated arched bracing. The building is dated to c1350 (Hewett).

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Picture source: Hania Franek