Downham Market, United Kingdom

The town's war memorial stands at the junction of London Road and Church Road. It was dedicated in October 1921 to the dead of World War I. It was paid for by public subscription and built by H. J. Long, a local stonemason. The memorial originally commemorated 73 local servicemen who fell in the First World War with the names of the dead of World War II added later. In 2005, Evelyn Irene Murrell, who died in 1918, a member of the WRAF was belatedly added to the list of names. The memorial bears the crown-and-arrows symbol of the town and of the martyred King St Edmund of East Anglia to whom the church is dedicated.

Downham Market is sometimes known as the Gingerbread Town because of the characteristic local carrstone used for its buildings since medieval times.

St Edmund’s Church is a good example of this and is Downham’s only Grade I listed building. It stands in a dominant position overlooking the flat fenlands to the west. The Church like the town was probably an Anglo-Saxon foundation, but was rebuilt in the 13th century Early English period; it was altered extensively in the 15th and 16th centuries, during the Perpendicular and Tudor periods.

The Old Court House located on London Road was where the magistrates dispensed justice in the Clackclose Hundred from 1861.

The Castle Hotel is Grade II listed and features a distinctive battlemented parapet. It is a mainly 18th-century building, but the core is probably earlier. In the past, visitors stayed here for hunting, shooting and fishing in the local area. The hotel had its own transport to and from railway station, and out on shooting parties. The building closed as a hotel and restaurant in 2020 and is set to be developed into flats.

Downham Market Town Hall, on the west side of the old Market Hill, was built by public subscription in 1887/8.

Opposite the Town Hall is a coaching inn, The Crown Hotel. Just inside the arched entrance are steps leading to a mounting block for horsemen. Before the Court House was built, magistrates met here. In May 1816, it was the scene of riots when the magistrates were besieged by angry, starving agricultural labourers demanding a living wage of two shillings a day and the release of poachers. Two of the Downham rioters, Daniel Harwood and Thomas Thody, were hanged on 31 August 1816.

The 18th-century Dial House, located on Station Road, was once a private school for gentlemen in the 1860s. Its name is derived from the sundial painted high on the wall. Today the building is a bed and breakfast.