The Guildhall And Attached Railings

The Guildhall and Attached Railings

The Guildhall is a building of 13th and 15th century date, substantially altered and extended in the 17th century and early 19th century. It is constructed in brick, stone and flint. The oldest surviving part is a 13th century stone entrance arch, now integrated within a late 15th century porch.

The exterior presents one and two storeys with a range of seven windows. The doorway features three orders of colonnettes and dog-tooth ornamentation. The two-storey porch has a stone-faced ground storey enclosed by small octagonal stone turrets. The upper storey is finished with a moulded stone string course above and below and faced in alternate bands of red brick and black knapped flint. The castellated parapet displays chequer flushwork in knapped flint and stone. The side walls are constructed in flint mixed with red brick and stone. A rectangular doorway has arched spandrels bearing heraldic shields. On the upper storey a two-light window with arched stone surrounds to the lights contains diamond-leaded panes behind cast-iron grilles. Below the sill is a carved stone escutcheon bearing the Coat of Arms of the Borough of St Edmundsbury. To each side of the entrance porch the building is faced in white brick, probably dating to 1807, with a plain parapet above a moulded stone cornice. Three twelve-pane sash windows on each side have moulded stone eared architraves and sills. The wings are fronted by cast-iron railings on a low brick wall.

The inner entrance arch leads into a passageway with principal rooms on each side. To the left, the Court Room occupies four bays and retains the lower part of its roof trusses below a flat ceiling, with main posts and long arched braces resting on corbels. The Royal Arms of James I are framed above the inner side of the doorway. At the north end, square Jacobean panelling encloses a raised dais area, above which hangs a full-length portrait of James I. Panelling and dado run along the west wall. The east wall features a gallery with balustrade and stair supported by fluted Doric columns. This links with a two-storey extension on the east added in 1806 and 1807, with an upper room formerly used as a council chamber. To the right of the entrance, six-panel double doors in an eared architrave give access to the Banqueting Room, which is half panelled with raised fielded panels and a moulded dado. The slightly coved ceiling has a heavy wood modillion cornice. At the south end stands a mid-18th century marble fireplace in an eared surround with enriched architrave and dentil cornice. Above the fireplace hangs a portrait of Jankyn Smith in an ornate architrave with broken pediment enclosing a shield with the arms of the Borough.

Above the entrance door is an open minstrels' gallery with bobbin-on-reel balusters leading to the Evidence House above the porch, a small room with a four-centred ceiling. In the thickness of the east wall is the original 15th century safe-cupboard with an oak door divided into six panels by iron bands studded with nails. The narrow side windows have a deep inner splay. The 15th century roof above the main range spans ten bays and is of unusual form, combining king- and queen-posts in the trusses with multiple tension-bracing. The first truss at the south end, above the former dais of the Banqueting Room, is highly ornate with a moulded cap and base to the king-post; the remaining trusses are plain with square-section king-posts braced to a heavy ridge-piece.

To the rear of the Guildhall, originally approached by an outside passage from the back of the Banqueting Room, are the remains of the former Guildhall Kitchen, later known as The Old Mortuary and now called The Old Borough Stables. This was almost completely rebuilt in the mid-19th century, apparently reusing Tudor bricks. Prior to that time it is said to have been timber-framed with ornate mullioned windows.