St Nicholas

ST NICHOLAS, BURY ST EDMUNDS

A house built on the site of the former Hospital of St Nicholas, incorporating fragments of the medieval hospital building. The house dates from the late 15th century but was substantially developed in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. It is constructed partly in timber-framing with rendered finish, partly with exposed timber and brick nogging, and partly in red brick, beneath a plain-tile roof.

The building comprises two storeys with a cellar and attics, and its exterior shows complex development across several distinct sections. The west façade facing Hollow Road features two bays of timber-framing at the south end, built above a ground storey wall of rendered flint rubble. The timber framing shows later replacements, with a blocked original window and infilled openings containing brick nogging. To the north stands a projecting chimney-stack of late 15th or early 16th-century date, constructed in red brick with a diaper-patterned base. Above this is a recessed arcaded panel, now painted black and divided by six slender wooden columns to simulate mullions, though a 20th-century window has been cut through this section. The stack has been rebuilt above the arcade with 19th-century crow-stepping and a large plain rectangular shaft.

Further north, the upper wall becomes rendered, sitting above a ground storey of mixed red brick and stone blocks. A projecting red brick entrance porch is approached by three rounded stone steps, the topmost of which forms part of a re-used sundial. The final section at the north end is 19th-century red brick, with a projecting square bay featuring mock timbering and five small-paned casement windows. Windows on the west and north sides are predominantly mid-19th-century, executed in a Romanesque style with 2-light configuration. The south gable displays Gothick wooden hood-moulds above a small-paned first-storey sash window and a 2-light attic window with trefoil-headed lights beneath a quatrefoil.

The rear elevation is equally complex in its composition. At the south end, the first storey contains a curious applied wooden arcade of five rounded arches, possibly dating to the late 17th century, flanked at each end by 12-pane sash windows. The ground storey has a large flat-roofed canted bay with small-paned sash windows, the principal window surmounted by a fanlight with Gothick tracery. A Jacobean rear door aligned with the front entrance door features a rectangular ovolo-moulded surround below a storied 19th-century porch with an open ground storey.

Internally, the chimney-stack on the west side, likely part of the medieval hospital buildings, and sections of lower walling to the west appear to be the oldest structural elements. The five timber-framed bays at the south end date from the 17th century, with little of the frame visible. On the upper floor, the main cross-beams are exposed, with some original floor-boarding surviving. Parts of the roof remain visible, showing rafters (some re-used) pegged at the apex. The principal ground storey room to the right of the entry contains early 18th-century rococo ornament in the door architraves and a fine fireplace surround with panels of both brown and white figured marble.