Turret House

BURY ST EDMUNDS

TL8563NW WESTGATE STREET 639-1/15/673 (South side) 07/08/52 No.24 Turret House

GV II*

House; now St Nicholas Hospice. Late C17 and C18. Stuccoed brick front with rusticated quoins; white brick to rear with red brick dressings; slate to front slope of roof, plaintiles to rear. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys, attic and cellar. 7 window range: all sashes, slightly irregularly spaced, without glazing bars, in moulded and shouldered architraves with raised flat arches and keystones. 6-panel entrance door with a Doric doorcase, fluted pilasters, triglyph frieze and pediment. The rear is in white brick with red brick dressings and has a heavy wood modillion cornice. A hipped wing projects on each side of the centre: on the west with two 12-pane sashes in flush cased frames to the ground and 1st storeys. A 2-light segmental-headed dormer; on the east a similar window arrangement has been changed on the ground storey by the addition of a flat-roofed early C19 extension with a tripartite sash window, 12-pane to the centre light, 8-pane to the sides. The centre has 3 similar sashes at different levels, one to light the stair. At the north side, a small section of a lower timber framed building is merged with the main range and may be a fragment of the original house on the site. INTERIOR: extensive cellars, mainly brick lined, but with a section of stone blocks along the front wall. A main beam with large chamfer and one old 2-light window with square leaded panes and pintle hinges. Some original sash windows on the ground storey of the rear wings have heavy ovolo-moulded glazing bars; the floors have the remains of York paving stones. 6-panel doors throughout. The ground storey room to the left of the entry has bolection-moulded panelling and door surrounds, beams with panelled boxing and a moulded cornice with dentils. One door has a panelled segmental-arched surround with keystone. To the right of the entry the room is fully panelled with raised fielded panelling; moulded dado rail; fireplace surround with eared architrave. A fine stair has moulded and ramped handrails, open bracketed strings and paired turned balusters. A flight in similar style leads from the 1st storey to the attic: some turned balusters

have been replaced by plain square ones. An upper room at the east end has mock Jacobean panelling throughout.

Listing NGR: TL8529763760