The Grapes Public House

The Grapes Public House, located on a corner site at the junction of Brentgovel Street and St Andrew's Street in Bury St Edmunds, is a public house dating from the early to mid-19th century. It is constructed primarily of white brick with a slate roof.

The building is three storeys high with cellars, and has a return front to St Andrew’s Street. It has a plain parapet with stone copings and a heavy stucco cornice. Raised stucco bands run between the first and second-storey windows. A cast-iron hanging inn sign projects from the first-storey front.

The three-window range facing Brentgovel Street features 12-pane sashes to the first and second storeys, set within cased frames with deep reveals and flat-gauged arches. Low cast-iron railings remain across some sills. The ground-storey windows are tripartite sashes with a 16-pane central light and smaller 4-pane side lights. A segmental-arched brick surround frames the doorway, which has a two-leaf door and a low segmental-arched fanlight with spoke glazing-bars. The recessed quadrant corner has a blocked window to the second storey, a 12-pane sash to the first storey, and a 20th-century canted bay to the ground storey with three 12-pane sash windows.

The St Andrew's Street frontage has a single sash window to each of the upper storeys, matching the style of the Brentgovel Street front, and a small door with a flat arch above.

Adjoining on the north is a two-storey block with a canted corner. This section has two large, two-light, small-paned casement windows to the upper storey, each with semicircular heads and radiating glazing-bars. A similar arched opening on the corner was blocked and now contains a later large-paned sash window. Another blocked window opening is present on the ground storey. The ground storey has one tripartite sash and a wide carriage entrance with double doors. This entrance features an elliptical brick arch with a raised keystone bearing the date 1837 and the letters TB.

Adjacent to this section is a timber-framed rear range, originally apparently jettied, that has been converted to stabling on the ground storey. The upper storey is now supported on a series of brick arches facing into the inn yard. Extensive cellars are located below the building, with walls constructed of brick and flint.