33 and 34, Abbeygate Street is a Grade II listed building in the West Suffolk local planning authority area, England. First listed on 18 December 1989. Shop.
33 and 34, Abbeygate Street
- WRENN ID
- sunken-forge-vermeil
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- West Suffolk
- Constituency
- Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket MP: Dr Peter Prinsley (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 18 December 1989
- Type
- Shop
- Address
- 33 and 34, Abbeygate Street, Bury St. Edmunds
- OS grid reference
- TL 854 642
- Coordinates
- 52.24485, 0.7154
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
33 and 34 Abbeygate Street are two shops that originally had living accommodation above, dating from the early 16th century, with a possible 15th-century wing at the back of No.34. The buildings are timber-framed and rendered, featuring a jettied front and an old plaintiled roof. A late 16th-century brick ridge stack with a plain Tudor brick shaft has been added.
The exterior consists of two storeys with attics and cellars. There are two windows on the front: late 19th-century four-paned sashes on the first storey. The parapet has 20th-century boarding, and late 19th-century dormers are present, with mid-20th-century casement windows on No.33 and a late 19th-century six-paned sash window on No.34. A late 19th-century cornice adorns the jetty, featuring a panelled soffit and ornate console brackets. The shop fronts are of 20th-century design, with recessed doorways; the front of No.34 was inserted in 1989. The rear of the buildings includes a mid-19th-century four-panelled door and 12 to 16-pane sashes.
Inside, No.33 has a cellar with stone lining and massive flat, plain joists. The ground storey features exposed studs, a chamfered main beam, and plain flat joists. A rear beam shows empty mortices for a former partition, and a main post is arch-braced to a surviving section of mid rail, suggesting an open-sided passage once ran along the back, contributing to the exceptional width of the upper floor, which is nearly 8 meters wide. In No.34, the ground storey timbers and ceiling joists are concealed by alterations made in 1989. The first storey showcases heavy close studding and tension braces along the west gable wall, with evidence of moulded window mullions on the front and a plain lintel above the open fireplace of the inserted stack. The side purlin roof features unusually wide arched wind braces. The altered rear wing retains the joist ends of a former jetty, some first storey studding, and a coupled rafter roof.
Local climate
33 and 34, Abbeygate Street sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 710 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 85% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 87% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 36 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 62% of listed buildings. Of these, 19 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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