Tower House is a Grade II listed building in the West Suffolk local planning authority area, England. First listed on 12 July 1972. Offices.

Tower House

WRENN ID
buried-storey-frost
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
West Suffolk
Constituency
Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket MP: Dr Peter Prinsley (Lab)
Country
England
Date first listed
12 July 1972
Type
Offices
Address
Tower House, 1 and 2, Crown Street, Bury St. Edmunds
OS grid reference
TL 855 640
Coordinates
52.24348, 0.71668
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: sale history · EPC · flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

Tower House is a former Penny Bank, now used as offices, dated 1846 on the north front and possibly designed by LN Cottingham. The building is constructed of red brick with purple brick patterns and stone detailing, featuring roofs with shaped tiles and ornate brick chimneys.

It stands two storeys tall with attics, displaying a four-window range on the west front and a five-window range on the north front, which faces the Norman Tower. The windows are stone-dressed and include two, three, and four-light designs that are double banked and traceried. Notably, there is a seven-light window on the ground floor of the north front, along with a central chimney stack, two gables, and a doorway featuring a pitched canopy and an intricately carved stone arch supported by ogee brackets and short pillars.

The east front has a gable with pronounced moulded brick coping, a stone oriel window on the first storey, and two narrow traceried windows below. It also features a low parapet with moulded tile coping. A 'Tudor' arched door with carved spandrels is set within a rectangular stone-dressed opening. A stone band runs between the storeys, and there is a moulded stone capped plinth. The east front is adjacent to Tower Cottages, which shares a similar architectural style.

Inside, there are extensive cellars that are partly brick-lined and partly flint, with heavy re-used main beams in the ceilings. Some original features remain, including plaster cornices with Tudor flower ornament on the ground storey ceilings and a newel stair with a round newel post moulded at the top storey.

Local climate

Tower House 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

Sign in or create a free account to unlock:

  • Full EPC report — heating system, energy costs, size, glazing, construction etc.
  • Sale history — 1 transaction since 2017
  • 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
Create free account

Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.

Similar buildings

The closest matches to this building from all 493,000 UK listed buildings, by architecture, period and materials.

Nearby listed buildings

  1. Tower Cottage Grade II 13 m
  2. 3 and 4, Crown Street Grade II 13 m
  3. Norman Tower Grade I 15 m
  4. Outbuilding to Number 3 Outbuilding to Number 3 Crown Street Grade II 17 m
  5. The Obelisk Grade II 22 m
  6. 5 and 6, Crown Street Grade II 26 m
  7. Martyrs Memorial Grade II 32 m
  8. 50, Crown Street Grade II 38 m
  9. 7 and 8, Crown Street Grade II 41 m
  10. A5, Monument 3 Grade II 41 m