St Margarets House

BURY ST EDMUNDS

TL8563NE ABBEY PRECINCTS 639-1/11/112 St Margaret's House 07/08/52

GV II*

House; now part of the Shire Hall. Early C18, but incorporating C13 Abbey remains and also early C20 extensions. In red brick with lighter rubbed brick dressings; tiled roof. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys and cellars; only the original C18 north front survives. This has a 7 window range, arranged 3:1:3 with the centre breaking forward slightly. All windows with glazing bars in broad flush cased frames with flat gauged arches. The east and west ends have broad giant brick pilasters rising through 3 storeys to a moulded brick dentil cornice. The projecting centre has similar pilasters surmounted by a moulded brick pediment. A brick band runs below the top storey windows. Central doorway with a stone surround and a pediment on enriched console brackets. A large moulded brick chimney-stack. On the east, a timber-framed and plastered 2-and-a-half storey C18 wing with a slate mansard roof. 5 window range: sashes with narrow glazing bars in flush cased frames; 3 dormers. The south side of the building is enclosed by a series of ornately gabled Edwardian extensions, including a turret with conical roof. INTERIOR: an old wine cellar below the western half of the main range. The brick-fronted range has a C17 timber-framed core: to the right of the entry a 2-bay room, now divided into 2, has an ovolo-moulded main beam and is fully panelled with raised fielded panels. The entrance hall has a fine early C18 stair with bracketed open strings, three vase-on-reel balusters to each step and a dado with raised fielded panels. Along the base of the 1st storey balustrade is ornamental plasterwork with floral and leaf designs and a central wreathed anchor. Above part of the 2nd-storey stair a section of C17 stair with barley-sugar-twist balusters. The mansard-roofed range contains a length of the south precinct wall of the Abbey, which forms part of one internal wall on the ground storey and includes a hollow chamfered pointed arched stone doorway, uncovered during recent repair work.

Listing NGR: TL8580163977