Northgate House, Bury St. Edmunds, West Suffolk, Suffolk, IP33 (Grade I)

BURY ST EDMUNDS

TL8564SE NORTHGATE STREET 639-1/8/484 (West side) 07/08/52 No.8 Northgate House

GV I

House. C16 and early C18. Encased in red brick, laid in English Bond with stone rusticated quoins. Timber-framed core; slate roof, of mansard form following C18 alterations. EXTERIOR: the front facing Northgate Street has 2 balanced 2-storey wings with a 3-storey recessed and gabled centre which contains the entrance. This centre has a fine stone-dressed small-paned Venetian window with Ionic pilasters to the 1st storey and a central round-headed window on stub brackets to the 2nd storey: a 12-pane sash in a plain architrave with a keystone. A stone band runs between the 1st and 2nd storeys. A central 6-panel door with stone pilasters and cornice has a 12-pane sash window with heavy ovolo-moulded glazing bars and moulded sills to each side. The door and windows are recessed in a deep entrance porch with clustered pilasters, a triglyph frieze with enriched metopes and a cornice which breaks forward centrally and above the side pilasters. The doorway is approached by a flight of steps and is protected by a good C18 iron ornamental gate; gateposts and railings on low side walls. The side wings have brick parapets, stone cornices, chamfered stone quoins and moulded stone plinths. Each wing has a 3 12-pane sash windows in plain reveals with gauged brick arches and stone keystones. A later 2-storey extension at the south end has a brick parapet with moulded stone cornice and two 12-pane sash windows in plain reveals to each storey. An imposing west frontage faces the garden: 2 storeys with a brick parapet and stone band and a moulded stone plinth. 11 window range, arranged 4:3:4, with the centre breaking forward slightly: 12-pane sashes in flush cased frames with segmental gauged brick arches; ornate keystones to the 4 outer windows on each side. The centre rises to 3 storeys with a moulded brick open pediment on short pilasters above a moulded brick cornice. The 2nd storey has a central round headed window. An original lead water-head is dated 1713. INTERIOR: very extensive cellars with original worn stone steps: front walls apparently of painted clunch; several stone

cross walls and much stone in the outer walling; vaulted brick ceilings; various niches. The interior has many fine early C18 fittings. The large panelled entrance hall has raised fielded panels and dado which also surround an inner porch with a 6-panel door and decorated cornice. Floor paved with limestone flags. A fireplace in white figured marble has a Baroque eared architrave with egg-and-dart and bay leaf ornament. The main geometric stair and balustrade have unusually complex balusters which combine vase-on-reel and barley-sugar twist ornament. Moulded ramped and wreathed handrail; open bracketed strings. The balusters on the back stairs, which rise to the attics, have a simpler vase-on-reel form. To the left of the entry, the former kitchen has one bay of an exposed timber ceiling with plain closely-set joists and evidence of an underbuilt jetty. A small back room has one wall with reset Jacobean panelling. To the right of the entry, a small panelled ante-room with a carved architrave to a corner fireplace, and beyond it a large room with dado and ornate eared architrave with egg-and-dart ornament and a central festoon to the fireplace. A main ceiling beam exposed during repairs has a C16 double ogee moulding and was formerly jettied. The large rear room has Edwardian remodelling with a heavily moulded ceiling in Jacobean style. Fully panelled rooms on the 1st storey also, several with good original fireplaces and 2 with panelled and pilastered surrounds: the most ornate has reeded Corinthian pilasters. The roof over the north end of the house has 3 C17 parallel gabled ranges and a rear range at right-angles to them, all with clasped purlins, but concealed beneath the present mansard roof. The roof over the south end is much altered and repaired. Surviving Victorian fittings in the house include a complete row of bells in the service corridor. (BOE: Pevsner N: Radcliffe E: Suffolk: London: 1974-: 103).