King’s Lynn town Hall, Eastern England

The town hall in King’s Lynn, is formed of four distinct but connected buildings. These include the Guildhall, Porch, Municipal Buildings and Goal House, and together they make up the Town Hall. The Guildhall of the Holy Trinity, which was a merchant’s religious society, is the earliest of the buildings and dates from 1422.  It was built after a fire damaged an earlier structure.  The Town Hall today also contains a local museum, which is in the Gaol House. 

The museum also houses what is known as King Lynn’s greatest treasure, a cup that is known as King John’s Cup, although it was made over one hundred years after King John died. It dates from around 1340, and is an amazing example of medieval craftsmanship.  Made from silver gilt and cloisonne enamel, it has 26 individual scenes on it and is considered to be one of the oldest and finest of all English, secular, medieval cups in existence. The history of the cup is unknown, it appears in the records from 1548. It may have originally been used by the guild for special occasions.