Duke's Head Hotel, King's Lynn

The Duke's Head was built in 1683 for a King's Lynn Member of Parliament, Sir John Turner,^[4] and is attributed to the King's Lynn architect Henry Bell.^[5] Bell designed and built many buildings in King's Lynn and Norfolk including the Customs House in King's Lynn.

The Duke's Head in the 1930s was noted for its excellent English cuisine, appearing in Florence White's guidebook, Where Shall We Eat or Put Up? in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. A contributor to the guidebook, identified as a friend of Florence White's, wrote: "My husband and I had dinner there this Whitsun and were very much struck by the excellence of the menu. I cannot remember each course, but do most certainly recollect the excellent tiny asparagus served with the roast duke--quite evidently that afternoon's gathering from the hotel or nearby garden, and also the general 'Englishness' of the whole meal, ending with really good cheese."^[6]

After World War II, however, the hotel went into some state of decline. It became part of Trust House Forte when Trust Houses Ltd. merged with Forte Holdings in 1970. One of the most infamous recollections of the state of the hotel and the quality of its food comes in a July 18 1971 letter that poet Philip Larkin wrote to novelist Barbara Pym. "One forgets that nobody stays in hotels these days except businessmen and American tourists: the food is geared to the business lunch or the steak-platter trade: portion control is rampant, and the material cheap anyway. . . . The presence of the hotel in the Good Food Guide is nothing short of a farce. Of course it's a Trust House, which guarantees a kind of depersonalized dullness. Never stay at a Trust House,' Larkin warns.^[7]

The Duke's Head is reputedly haunted.^{[citation needed][8]} It stands on the site of an ancient inn called the Gryffin. There is a red lady who is thought to be a haunting manifestation of a woman who killed herself over her two lovers.^{[9][unreliable source?]} There is also a ghostly maid servant who was executed in Tuesday Market Place for poisoning her mistress.^{[10][unreliable source?]}