25 And 26, Churchgate Street

BURY ST EDMUNDS

TL8564SW CHURCHGATE STREET 639-1/14/240 (North side) 20/04/71 Nos.25 AND 26

GV II

Shop, formerly divided into 2. Early C16. Timber-framed and rendered with a high brick plinth and continuous jetty. Plaintiled roof with a plain eaves soffit. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys: a 2-bay front range and a short rear range at right-angles to it. In the east gable wall a beam set higher than the jetty level indicates a former carriage entrance into a rear yard. The jetty has been widened to allow for the insertion of sash windows on the upper storey. 2 window range: 6-paned sashes in heavy cased frames which project slightly from the wall-surface. 2 C19 shop windows to the ground storey, each with pilasters and a moulded cornice to the fascia: on the left, slender glazing-bars, on the right a single dividing mullion. 2 adjacent 4-panelled doors (one blocked) in plain architraves. INTERIOR: exposed timber ceilings to the ground storey. The 2-bay front range has the remains of a C19 chimney-stack set internally on the west gable wall, but it was formerly unheated, and divided into 2 shops by a stud partition, now removed. The rear range, roofed by a single span, was also divided originally, with a chimney-stack with 2 back-to-back hearths between the 2 rooms. In the back wall of the front range, immediately to the left of the former partition, are the remains of a doorway with a plain 4-centred arched head which gave access to the western room of the rear range. This still has an open fireplace, plastered, with a plain timber lintel. The ceiling-beams and joists throughout the ground storey are plain, the joists unchamfered. 3 blocked original stair-traps, one in the eastern front bay and one in each of the rear rooms, indicate an irregular division of the premises when first built, with each dwelling having a shop in the front and a rear living-room, but the eastern half with access to the major part of the upper storey. Wide substantial studding and tension bracing; housings in the wallplates for diamond-mullioned windows. Upper ceilings a later insertion; roofs inaccessible.

Listing NGR: TL8544564061