1, Abbeygate Street, Bury St. Edmunds, West Suffolk, Suffolk, IP33 (Grade II)

BURY ST EDMUNDS

TL8564SW ABBEYGATE STREET 639-1/14/121 (North side) 16/06/89 No.1

Building society office, originally shop with living accommodation above. Late C15, extended to rear (north) in early C16. Restored 1988, when the present shop fronts were inserted. Timber-framed and rendered, slated roof with ornamental crest tiles. Gable end to south has C19 pierced bargeboards and spike finial. Rendered external stack against east wall and a small single-storey lean-to extension. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys with attic and cellar. Single window range. Occupies the south end of an island site between Skinner Street and The Traverse. The upper floor was jettied on all 3 sides, the jettying mostly reinstated and the bressumer re-faced in 1988. At the gable end both bressumer and mid-rail have embattled decoration. Only the tops of the corner-posts survive, supported on C19 cast-iron columns encased in timber. Timber shop front with central recessed doorway. A 6-panel sash window at first floor and another at attic level. Side facing The Traverse has projecting addition with shop front; three 6-pane sash windows to upper floor. Skinner Street frontage has small section of jetty with original moulded and embattled bressumer and one original bracket. 3 sash windows to upper floor. INTERIOR: earlier phase in 3 bays with a one-bay addition at the north end. Heavy close studding, most complete in the front bay on the upper floor where it has been left exposed. One wallplate has an edge-halved and bridled scarf with undersquinted butts. Original upper windows had spandrels and moulded mullions for which evidence is now mainly concealed. The front bay was partitioned-off on both floors: the first floor partition, with remains of tension braces, is largely intact. Ground floor ceiling in front bay has chamfered dragon-beams and heavy plain joists. Similar joists in the other bays are now concealed. The front bay has a C17 upper ceiling. The earlier work has a plain crown-post roof with 2-way bracing. Roof over rear bay renewed in C19. Cellar below whole building, mainly with C20 rendering, but some fragments of flint and old brick visible. A small projecting section below the corner of Abbeygate Street and The Traverse has 2 courses of large ashlar blocks with flint rubble above and below and a low arched roof of Tudor brick.