Numbers 1, 1A, 2 And 3 West Front And Sampsons Tower

Numbers 1, 1A, 2 and 3 West Front and Samson's Tower, Bury St Edmunds

Remains of the West Front of the Abbey of St Edmund, a Grade I listed structure forming part of the abbey precincts. The front was begun under Abbot Anselm (1120–1148) and completed under Abbot Samson (1182–1211) and his Sacrist, Walter de Banham (c.1200–1211). Construction uses coursed flint with traces of the original stone facing.

The West Front originally featured three tall deeply recessed entrance arches in the centre, originally surmounted by a high central tower and spire. The remains of these arches are still visible but are infilled with later walling. As completed by Abbot Samson, the front was flanked by octagonal towers and spires at each end and measured 246 feet across, the widest in Britain. Behind the central three arches lay the west transept with apsidal chapels on two storeys to each side. The north end of the front is now missing, and ground levels have risen between 4 and 8 feet.

From the later 17th century onwards, two- and three-storey houses were inserted into the ruinous remains of the arches and west transept. These were altered in the 18th century and again altered and extended during the 19th century, leaving the West Front today showing evidence of all these phases of change.

At the south end stands Samson's Tower, an octagonal structure originally used as a stable in the 17th and 18th centuries and subsequently as a dye works. It was converted into the town's Probate Registry in 1863 to designs by architect William Rednall. At the same time, the adjoining part to the north was made into the registrar's residence (No.3). Both structures display details in a heavy Victorian Romanesque style. The octagonal tower has a conical tiled roof, tall round-headed windows to the high ground storey with roll-moulded arches and flanking shafts with cushion capitals. Small-paned cast-iron windows are set within these surrounds. Circular windows to the first storey have radiating cast-iron glazing bars. Linked windows with a central shaft and paired outer shafts sit above the door. The former registrar's house (No.3) has two similar but smaller windows to each storey and a narrow window above the door. Both doorways display similar designs with rounded arches. The chimney-stack to No.3 features decorative arches on each face of the shaft.

No.2 occupies both the former south and central arches of the front, both of which are infilled with later walling in a mixture of flint and stone. Two-light windows in Victorian Romanesque style and a door in plain wood surround were inserted into the south arch in the later 19th century. The upper windows are arranged in two tiers, set into a rendered rectangular frame. The central arch is the only part of the front which retains 18th-century features externally: two twelve-pane sash windows in cased frames with shallow reveals to the ground and first storeys, and a two-light small-paned casement window to the second storey. A six-panel door with raised fielded panels has a rectangular fanlight and moulded wood surround with a flat cornice hood on brackets. Between Nos 1 and 2 are the remains of the original north stair turret with three openings above; the stair gave access to the northern upper chapel and to the gallery above the west transept.

No.1 occupies the north arch of the front and was refaced in the later 19th century. A large canted bay window rising through two storeys has heavy rendered surrounds, with three square-headed lights on the ground storey and five round-headed lights above. Above it is a small early 19th-century sash window. The entrance door has a projecting round-headed canopy. No.1 has a complex series of 19th-century alterations and rear extensions. In the early to mid 19th century, a further house, No.1A, was created at the north end, with a wide entrance arch between Nos 1 and 1A. No.1A has a front wall of monastic flint rubble and features in Victorian Gothic style: above the entrance arch are two small-paned sash windows within pointed arches formed by intersecting Y-tracery. A moulded timber surround to the door incorporates a single narrow shaft with bell capitals at either side and a quatrefoil with lozenge and flower motif in each spandrel. A large rectangular fanlight has three lights with pointed heads.

Interior features vary by section. Samson's Tower, divided into two rooms on the ground storey when it became the Probate Registry, contains a single large octagonal upper room with deep splays to the circular windows. A winder stair with cast-iron balusters provides access. The former registrar's house (No.3) is the most ruinous part of the group, with no first-storey flooring surviving. No.2 retains some 17th- and 18th-century features but was considerably refurbished in the late 19th century. A small cellar below the central arch descends to the original ground level of the West Front. In the south wall of the south arch are the stone remains of the roll-moulding and abaci of the Norman arch which led to the ground storey chapel to the south of the west transept. A particularly fine six-panel door occupies the ground storey. The ground storey sash windows have internal pull-up shutters. The gabled roof behind the central arch has side purlins and dates from the 17th century. No.1, set within the north arch, principally shows 19th-century features, but the cellar contains one wall of 17th-century brick, and the long rear roof-slope may be of the same date. Two ceiling beams have chamfers and ogee stops. Between Nos 1 and 1A runs a length of 12th-century wall approximately 20 metres long containing two original arches: this wall marks the junction of the west transept with the apsidal chapel to the north of it and corresponds stylistically with the surviving arch in the south wall of No.2. Fragmentary remains of the groined chapel vaulting also survive.

The Abbey remains are designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.