37, 38 and 39, Cannon Street

A row of three houses on Cannon Street in Bury St Edmunds, dating back to a 13th-century core with alterations in the 17th and later centuries. The frontages of numbers 37 and 38 were updated in the early 19th century, while number 39 has a more modern exterior. The houses are timber-framed and rendered with slate roofs.

The exterior presents two storeys. The central section has two 16-pane sash windows on the upper storey, with a blank space between, and two large-paned sashes on the ground floor, the one on the right formerly a shop window. A raised stucco band runs between the floors. Replacement 20th-century doors, framed by early 19th-century moulded architraves with simple cornice hoods, are located at numbers 37 and 38. The outer ends of the row feature windows at a lower level than the centre. Number 37 has a 16-pane sash window above a carriage entrance, while number 39 has a 20th-century sash window above a 20th-century door. A single-storey extension extends northwards, rounding the corner.

The interiors of numbers 37 and 38 retain fragmentary remains of a 13th-century aisled house. This includes a two-bay open hall and a storied end to the south. Within the carriage entrance of number 37, a main beam supporting the upper floor of the storied end is visible. In number 38, parts of the arcade posts of the open truss, with moulded capitals and one straight brace rising from above the capital, remain. Sections of the arcade plates are also visible on the upper storey. The aisles and roof were removed in the 17th century, and the outer walls raised, with the earlier tie-beam level visible in the partition wall between numbers 38 and 39. Some of the 13th-century rafters were incorporated into a later rear partition wall, and a second storied end was added to the north, now forming the two-storey section of number 39, which features an exposed timber ceiling on the ground floor. The roof was again re-pitched in the 19th century.