Ridleys

BURY ST EDMUNDS

TL8564SW ABBEYGATE STREET 639-1/14/141 (South side) 07/08/52 Nos.35 AND 36 Ridleys

GV II*

Shop with offices above, formerly 2 shops with living accommodation. c1700. Red brick laid in Flemish Bond with blue headers; plaintiled roofs, modillion eaves cornice. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys, attics and cellars; a front range and 2 rear wings, one with a long frontage along Angel Lane. On the Abbeygate Street frontage, 4 small-paned sash windows to the upper storey and one Edwardian French door, with diminished side-lights to the glazing, which opens onto a balcony with Edwardian wrought-iron railings. 3 flat-headed dormers with lead roofs and cheeks have 2-light casement windows. The ground storey has 2 very fine early C19 shop fronts, now linked. The former No.35 has 2 square small-paned windows and a central entrance; a continuous dentil cornice above and panelled fascia boards. The former No.36 has a small-paned bow window and a side entrance with steps and a curved wrought-iron rail. The Angel Lane frontage, which closely resembles the facade of No.25 Abbeygate Street (qv) which faces onto Lower Baxter Street, has 8 original window openings with gauged heads to the upper storey, 2 blocked, 2 with late C19 small-paned sash windows in cased frames, 4 with cross windows. One flat-headed dormer with lead roof and cheeks. The ground storey has 4 sash windows, one blocked, 2 blocked doorways, and 2 doors, one with 6 raised fielded panels and a rectangular fanlight above. INTERIOR: cellars run below the front range and both rear wings. Some C19 brick walls have been introduced, but the original walling is in a mixture of rubble flint with Tudor brick and some re-used stone blocks. Massive C16 ceiling-beams, chamfered and stopped; modern replaced joists. The western front bay has a dragon beam which appears to be in situ, running out to the former south-west corner, but no part of a corresponding structure remains above. On the ground storey the brickwork of an angle fireplace relating to the Angel Lane range has been exposed, and on the upper storey several ceiling-beams are visible. Roofs throughout of a late clasped purlin type, without principals or a ridge-piece and with some re-used components. The attics were once used as dormitories for the shop assistants and there are the remains of the C17 and C18 balusters of several former stairs.

HISTORY: The Ridley family have been invloved with this site for the last 400 years.

Listing NGR: TL8546264204