2 And 3, College Street

This is a timber-framed house, originally built in the 16th century and later divided into two separate dwellings in the early 19th century. It is located on College Street, Bury St Edmunds.

The house has two storeys and a cellar, with an attic space in the northern section (number 3). It was built with a three-cell plan, with a projecting jettied front along the street. The roof has old plaintiles to the front slope, 20th-century double-Roman tiles to the rear, and lean-to additions. The facade is timber-framed, with roughcast render in panels. Prominent features include a large internal chimney stack and an end stack on the south side which are both tall and rectangular, built of red brick. The upper storey has five irregularly spaced sash windows, each containing twelve panes, set within flush-cased frames. The ground floor of number 2 has a deeper sash window with twelve panes, and a tripartite sash with smaller panes on either side and a moulded cornice. Number 3 has two similar tripartite sash windows. There are two entrance doors, each with a rectangular fanlight and moulded architrave—number 2 has a six-panel door (previously with two leaves), and number 3 has a six-panel flush door. A lower, unjettied section to the south encloses the end stack.

The cellar of number 2 extends partially beneath the adjacent building at number 1. The interior reveals rubble flint walls covered with old render, and a renewed ceiling. The main ground-floor room is in two bays, featuring a heavy chamfered main beam and flat joists. A fireplace with stone jambs has a double ogee moulding that continues across the cambered timber lintel. On the upper storey, another fireplace retains stone jambs with roll mouldings, continuing across the cambered timber lintel, and a rounded back with traces of red ochre colouring on the render. A blocked doorway nearby once led to number 3. The framing of the front and back walls differs, indicating alterations and suggesting an earlier core. The roof is a plain crown-post roof, with the crown-post braced only to the collar-purlin. Originally the half-bay at the north end was likely hipped.

Number 3 has less visible timber framing but shows similar evidence of rear wall alterations, with blocked original windows. The fireplace in the end stack features a large chamfered lintel with curved stops and stone jambs. A single exposed cross-beam has small supporting arched braces. The attic space, accessible by a staircase in the small unjettied south end, is rendered and has a side-purlin roof.