The Priory Hotel, Bury St. Edmunds, West Suffolk, Suffolk, IP32 (Grade II*)

BURY ST EDMUNDS

TL86NE MILDENHALL ROAD 639-1/13/474 (East side) 07/08/52 The Priory Hotel (Formerly Listed as: MILDENHALL ROAD (East side) Babwell Friary)

House, now a hotel, on the site of the former Babwell Friary, a house of Franciscan friars transferred here after 1262. C16, C17 and C18, possibly with a fragmentary older core. Part timber-framed and rendered, part flint with brick dressings. Plaintiled roofs. Complex plan, with the principal range aligned east-west and with 2 wings extending northwards from it. EXTERIOR: part 2 storeys, part 2 storeys and attics. The principal range is timber-framed and rendered and has a red brick gable end facing the Mildenhall Road which incorporates a C16 chimney-stack with 4 detached hexagonal shafts on moulded bases. In the early C17 the stack was widened and given shaped gables; quoins to the lower stages are partly of stone. Just below the chimney shafts a recessed plaster panel with the remains of a sundial. The principal front is on the south side. 5 window range: all 12-pane sashes in flush cased frames. The central 6-panel double entrance door is partly glazed and set in a heavy Tuscan porch. An internal chimney-stack has 5 attached hexagonal sawtooth shafts on a low rectangular base. The pitch of the roof has been made shallower to accommodate a larger attic storey. On the east, a 2-storey flat-roofed canted bay was added to the gable end in the C18: 3 windows, all 12-pane sashes in flush cased frames; a plain parapet with a moulded stucco cornice. In the gable above the flat roof a 2-light casement window and moulded bargeboards with a small lion’s head at the apex. The wing extending northwards from the east end of the main range is in 2 sections: part with sash windows in Georgian style, part on a lower level with a split level mansard roof. The long wing extending northwards from the west end of the main range and fronting the Mildenhall Road is in flint with white brick dressings: externally of the early C19, it is thought to contain fragments of the Friary buildings, although none are visible. 6 window range: 12-pane sashes in shallow

reveals. 2 half glazed doors and 4 sash windows to the ground storey. An internal chimney-stack has 3 hexagonal shafts on moulded bases similar to those on the gable end stack; originally it had 4 shafts. INTERIOR: the east-west range is in 3 bays and was first divided into 3 heated rooms. Only main beams are visible on the ground storey, boxed in the east bay. The 2 west bays have ovolo-moulded trimmers and a main cross-beam which formerly held a partition, now faced with later boarding. The end stack on the west has a very wide fireplace with plain stone jambs and a straight chamfered lintel. The internal stack has 2 back-to-back hearths on each storey, all rendered over to simulate stone. On the ground storey these have simple ovolo-moulded segmental-arched openings; on the upper storey one has a moulded Tudor arch with spandrels. Another upper fireplace has been ‘Georgianised’ and has patterned blue Delft tiles. Along the north upper wall of this range is a section of close studding with a blocked 3-light ovolo-moulded mullioned window and main posts with long jowls. Within the upper room at the east end the tie-beam of the original end wall is exposed with an unusual form of folded leaf carving and the central motif of a pomegranate. Some sash windows on each storey have panelled internal shutters. An early C19 stair has stick balusters and a wreathed handrail. The Babwell Friary remains are a Scheduled Ancient Monument. (BOE: Pevsner N: Radcliffe E: Suffolk: London: 1974-: 153-154).