Description

BURY ST EDMUNDS

TL8564SW ABBEYGATE STREET
639-1/14/152 (South side)
07/08/52 No.56

GV II*

Includes: Nos.1 AND 2A WHITING STREET.
Shop. Late C15, C16 and C17, refronted in the early C19.
Timber-framed, rendered and lined; slate roof with a plain
parapet and paired mutules to the heavy moulded cornice.
EXTERIOR: 3 storeys and cellars; on a corner site with a
return front to Whiting Street. L-shaped plan with a rear
range running behind No.55 Abbeygate Street (qv). On the
Abbeygate Street frontage 2 windows to each storey, 12-pane
sashes to the 1st storey and 9-pane to the 2nd storey, all in
heavy cased frames. Moulded fascia to the shop front which
continues round into Whiting Street: shop windows with
vertical glazing-bars.
Along the Whiting Street frontage there is a drop in the level
of the ground and first storey windows: 5 window range, sashes
in cased frames, some with glazing-bars. 7 C20 large-paned
sash windows to the ground storey. A wide doorway with fluted
columns, plain architrave and dentil frieze has C20 columns of
Ashburton marble behind.
INTERIOR: extensive cellars, medieval below the Whiting Street
range, where their walls are of flint, coursed with lines of
tiles, and a heavy chamfered main ceiling-beam is supported on
piers of reused Abbey stone with the joists lodged above it. A
later cellar below the rear range is lined with coursed
limestone blocks, and a C19 brick-lined section links the 2.
Heavy timbers exposed on the ground storey show that the
building has at least 4 stages of development, with the oldest
part the 4 bays at the south end of the Whiting Street range.
These originally formed a single-ended Wealden house with a
2-bay open hall linked to a jettied service bay by a wide
cross-entry.
Empty mortices in the central beam show that the service bay
was divided into 2; the cross-beam at the lower end of the
hall has mortices for a former screen. The inserted ceiling in
the former hall was jettied along the street and has multiple
roll-mouldings on the timbers; the main cross-beams have an
ornate carved boss at their intersection in which a circle of
flowers is enclosed by a foliated surround. Associated with
this range, and probably contemporary with it, is a 2-storey
2-bay range which extended behind the hall; a short gap
between the 2 frames formerly containing a chimney-stack. This

range has a plain crown-post roof with the crown-posts braced
downwards to the tie-beams and upwards to the collar-purlin.
A further 2-bay 2-storey range was added to the east with very
little difference of date between: this also has a crown-post
roof, braced to the collar-purlin only. To the north of the
Wealden section a long single-bay room was added, also
jettied, with flat unchamfered heavy joists and main beams
with a delicate cresting ornament enclosed by roll-mouldings.
Further north again, the 2 corner bays have plain heavy joists
and chamfered main beams with a long dragon-beam supported by
a corner-post. On its 2 external faces are carved the
slightly-mutilated figures of a man and woman in early C16
costume. The outer studding is missing, but mortices indicate
the position of doors and windows for a shop. Within the angle
of the front and rear is a restored Jacobean stair with carved
and pierced splat balusters and moulded handrails; the ornate
newel-posts have open lantern finials. The roof over the
Whiting Street range has been replaced.
Nos 1 and 2A Whiting Street were listed on 120772.
(BOE: Pevsner N: Radcliffe E: Suffolk: London: 1974-: 149).

Listing NGR: TL8531664173

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17545350

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.

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