2, Abbeygate Street

BURY ST EDMUNDS

TL8564SW ABBEYGATE STREET 639-1/14/122 (North side) 07/08/52 No.2

GV II

House, now building society offices. Early C17 restored in 1969. Timber-framed with a cement-rendered front in pargeted panels. Tiled roofs. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys with attics and cellars. The Abbeygate Street facade has a slightly projecting gable above the 2nd storey windows with a coved soffit decorated with paterae. 2 window range on the Abbeygate Street frontage and 4 window range on the Skinner Street front, all small-paned sashes in cased frames with moulded wood architraves. The south front has a 'Perpendicular Gothic' niche with a figure of St Edmund. A fine internal C17 moulded brick chimney-stack has square corner shafts attached to a central stack. INTERIOR: in 5 bays; all original partitions removed on the ground floor. The bay adjacent to Abbeygate Street (south) has an ovolo-moulded main beam on both ground and first floors. On the 2nd floor jowled main posts, wallplates and some plain studding are exposed; the chamfered main beams have curved stops and groove. Against part of the east wall a small section of early C17 panelling with carving in low relief and a 3-light C16 mullioned window with moulded mullions. The principal feature of the interior is the fine ornate Jacobean stair with open lantern newels and pierced splat balusters. An original dog-leg section is on the first and 2nd floors; the separate flight from the ground floor incorporates some original pieces but is mainly a reproduction of 1969. The roofs were replaced during restoration. The large cellar, divided into C20 storage areas, has some small blocks of reused stone along the front and east walls, interspersed with old brick and flint.

Listing NGR: TL8530864211