Description

BURY ST EDMUNDS

TL8564SW CORNHILL
639-1/14/294 (West side)
07/08/52 Market Cross
(Formerly Listed as:
CORNHILL
(West side)
Town Hall)

GV I

Former playhouse and town hall, now an art gallery on the
upper storey with offices below. Between 1774 and 1780. By
Robert Adam, architect; built by Thomas Singleton, stonemason
of Bury St Edmunds, who also carved the decorative panels.
White brick with Ketton stone used for dressings on the upper
storey above a rusticated ground storey.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys; oblong cruciform plan; on a island site.
The ground storey has semicircular headed arches on all faces
and is partly open; some windows with glazing-bars. Doorways
on the north and south fronts have a panel on each side carved
in low relief with masks and emblems representing the Muses.
The upper storey has all 4 principal faces treated in the same
way with a Venetian window embraced by Ionic engaged columns
supporting a frieze and pediment. On each side are plastered
niches carrying Etruscan type stone ornaments. Stone panels
above these niches have swags and paterae. All other faces
have C19/C20 replacement small-paned sash windows set in
moulded stone architraves, some with pediments on console
brackets and some with cornices and ornamental friezes. All
windows on the 1st storey have stone balustrading to the
sills. The building is topped by a stone cornice with a stone
band below.
INTERIOR: has undergone considerable changes and the upper
room is now rather plain: plaster cornices with palmettes; 3
central bosses in the ceiling have acanthus-leaf decoration
and a fluted outer ring with swags. Doors with 4 long moulded
sunk panels. A fireplace, with detached fluted columns,
decorated with plaster swags and garlands, is in Adam style
but made of cast-iron. An exact double of this fireplace
surround is in a principal bedroom at No.2 Angel Hill, now
part of the Angel Hotel (qv).
(BOE: Pevsner N: Radcliffe E: Suffolk: London: 1974-: 146).

Listing NGR: TL8525364308

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Market Cross at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17526586

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)