2, Abbeygate Street

No. 2 Abbeygate Street is a house that now serves as building society offices. It dates from the early 17th century and was restored in 1969. The structure is timber-framed with a cement-rendered front featuring pargeted panels and has tiled roofs.

The building stands three storeys tall, with attics and cellars. The facade facing Abbeygate Street has a slightly projecting gable above the second-storey windows, which is adorned with a coved soffit and decorative paterae. There are two windows on the Abbeygate Street side and four on the Skinner Street side, all featuring small-paned sash windows in cased frames with moulded wood architraves. The south front includes a 'Perpendicular Gothic' niche that houses a figure of St Edmund. Inside, there is a notable 17th-century moulded brick chimney stack with square corner shafts attached to a central stack.

The interior consists of five bays, with all original partitions removed on the ground floor. The bay closest to Abbeygate Street has an ovolo-moulded main beam on both the ground and first floors. On the second floor, jowled main posts, wallplates, and some plain studding are exposed, with chamfered main beams featuring curved stops and grooves. A small section of early 17th-century panelling with low relief carving and a three-light 16th-century mullioned window with moulded mullions can be found against part of the east wall. The standout feature of the interior is the ornate Jacobean staircase, which has open lantern newels and pierced splat balusters. The original dog-leg section of the staircase remains on the first and second floors, while the separate flight from the ground floor incorporates some original elements but is mostly a reproduction from 1969. The roofs were replaced during the restoration. The large cellar, now divided into 20th-century storage areas, contains some small blocks of reused stone along the front and east walls, mixed with old brick and flint.