The Old Angel

The Old Angel is a public house in Bury St Edmunds, originally two separate houses dating back to the 16th century, with subsequent alterations. It is a timber-framed building, now rendered, with jettied sections along the street frontage, the southern section’s jetty underbuilt with painted brick. The southern part has black glazed pantiles, while the northern part has 20th-century plain tiles; the rear has older plain tiles.

The building has two storeys and cellars, with an attic to part of it. The plan is complex, featuring three gabled extensions and a single-storey stable range at the rear. A wide carriage entrance, cut through both end frames, links the two original houses. The southern part has an end chimney stack and a second chimney inserted into the front roof slope, both with plain red brick shafts. It has a two-window front, with sash windows having a single vertical bar in flush cased frames. The remains of the jetty are covered with a plain wooden fascia board. A central doorway has four sunk panels, set within a doorcase with fluted pilasters and a cornice, leading to double doors with diagonal boarding at the carriage entrance. The northern part, formerly numbered 45, features old render with decorative comb pargeting. It has a small two-light casement window on the upper storey and a larger two-light casement window on the ground storey with moulded architraves, alongside a four-panelled half-glazed door in a plain wooden surround. A gabled dormer in the front roof slope has plain bargeboards and a two-light casement window with a single bar to the lights, supported by two solid brackets.

The cellars beneath both parts of the building are notable, including a barrel chute still in place at the rear. In the cellars beneath the former number 45, the walls are lined with reused stone blocks, including some circular pieces from former columns. The southern interior consists of two long bays forming a single large ground-floor room. It has double roll-mouldings to the main cross-beams, with joists covered. On the upper storey, there are lambs' tongue stops to the ceiling beams and main posts, with long tapered jowls, with the remaining framing concealed. A filled-in original fireplace in one rear wing retains a timber lintel with a double ogee-moulding. The northern half, formerly number 45, comprises two bays, one partially taken up by the carriage entrance, which has had its original ceiling cut away and raised, creating a two-level upper room. The ground storey has chamfered cross-beams with lambs' tongue stops. The upper storey exposes studding and two trusses with long arched braces to the cambered tie-beams. Notably, only the main components of one end truss are present; it was evidently butted up against a pre-existing house. A blocked five-light original window with diamond mullions remains in situ along the front wall, with housings for a similar window. Roof structures are concealed.