7, Northgate Street, Bury St. Edmunds, West Suffolk, Suffolk, IP33 (Grade II*)

BURY ST EDMUNDS

TL8564SE NORTHGATE STREET 639-1/8/483 (West side) 07/08/52 No.7

GV II*

House. c1500. Timber-framed and jettied, part originally with brick nogging, now all rendered in panels. The ends of the jetty are covered by a moulded fascia. Plaintiled roof. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys, cellar to part, attics. A range of 7 irregularly spaced sash windows with a single vertical glazing-bar to lights in flush cased frames. A central 6-panel entrance door, up 6 steps with cast-iron wreathed handrails, has an Adam style fanlight with radiating glazing bars and is recessed in a wood doorcase with panelled reveals and pilasters and an open dentilled cornice. A 16-pane sash window in a flush cased frame in the apex of the south gable. A brick extension at the rear partly replaces a C19 brick range. The jetty was underbuilt in the C18 and the house now has a double front wall with a gap between the 2 into which panelled frames and inside shutters for the sash windows were fitted. Part of the original front wall on the south side can be seen from inside the house: the brackets supporting the jetty had carved capitals and shafts down the front of the posts. On the upper storey a new jetty was added, again with the intention of making space for the inserted sash windows. INTERIOR: cellar below south end has an original ceiling with plain joists and heavy main beam. Walls with niches and a wide retaining arch in the inner wall. A C19 brick addition has numbered wine bins. The timber frame is in 2 distinct halves, quite close in date; on the south, 2 bays, including the entry, divided into 2 rooms, both with double ogee moulding to the main ceiling beams and joists. The north wall has a 6-panel door in a moulded surround and exposed studding with the remains of wall painting simulating wood panelling: the panels are outlined in red and contain brown roughly drawn wood graining. A rebuilt chimney-stack on the back wall has stone jambs and a smaller 1st storey fireplace has stone jambs and a plain cambered timber lintel. The south upper storey, divided into 2, has the principal room with exposed studding and traces of wall painting in 3 phases: on the north wall, similar to the room below; along the south wall a delicately painted late C17 floral design with vase on a pink background in one panel and parts of a frieze in grey and black over a doorway. The ceiling has shallow double roll

mouldings to the cross beams and single roll mouldings to the joists. The partition wall between the 2 upper rooms has long tension braces and the end room has a blocked stair trap. Roof with side purlins set square and the remains of braces for a queen-post roof. The queen-posts are missing and there is a 2nd layer of rafters. To the north of the entry are 3 bays of slightly earlier framing which formed a single large room on each storey. Exposed ground storey ceilings have heavy chamfered cross-beams with cut-off stops and plain unchamfered joists. Studding along the front wall has the remains of brick nogging. A chimney-stack on the rear wall with a plain timber lintel. On the upper storey the walls have long arched braces halved against the studs and arched braces (some removed) to the tie-beams. The tie-beam of the open truss has a peg-hole and mortice for a missing crown-post. The much-repaired roof has 3 layers of rafters. (BOE: Pevsner N: Radcliffe E: Suffolk: London: 1974-: 153).