Bury St Edmunds

Pictures of buildings mentioned in the second edition “Suffolk” volume of “The Buildings of England” series by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner.

It is hard to represent Bury St Edmunds properly on this site. It has the longest entry in the second edition at 23 pages and the third edition (Suffolk West volume) runs to just over 50 pages.The best advice is to go to the town with a Pevsner in hand - the third Edition if you can. Whilst it is essentially Georgian in character there is much to see that is earlier and later. There are good restaurants and good shopping areas both ancient and modern. In the meantime we can but dip in and find a few gems of note.

Pevsner (second edition) deals with the Abbey and its surviving buildings first, then the Cathedral, followed by St Mary and other churches before dealing with public buildings and then the town with two "perambulations". James Bettley's third edition follows a similar plan. However, I'll start with St. Mary's, then the Abbey and then the rest of the buildings in some broad relationship to the book.

I start with St Mary's because within that Church is the monument to Mary Tudor, sister of Henry VIII, married to King Louis XII of France, and after his death (first secretly) to Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk. She was the Duchess of Suffolk but more widely known as the French Queen. Here are some photographs:
Stacks Image 15
Some explanations:
Stacks Image 11
Stacks Image 13
The bottom of the window depicting scenes from Mary's life presented by Queen Victoria:
Stacks Image 19
And the full window;
Stacks Image 17
Next we move on to the Abbey. Of it Pevsner starts with "St. Edmundsbury was one of the four or five most powerful and wealthy Benedictine monasteries in England. What remains of it now is two mighty gates into the precinct, and inside it no more than fragments, which tell their tale only to the student". First the two "mighty gates":
Stacks Image 32
The Norman Gate from the town side.
Stacks Image 34
The Great Gate from the town side.
And to see them from their other sides:
Stacks Image 45
The Norman Gate from the other side.
Stacks Image 47
The Great Gate from the precinct side.
There is a viw of inside the Great Gate and then the rear of Abbey House from the precinct:
Stacks Image 58
Stacks Image 60
Of Abbey House on Angel Hill, Pevsner says "No 30, seven bays, drably cemented, with an Ionic porch. The back of the house, inside the precinct, is older". After the rear view above, here are two views from Angel Hill:
Stacks Image 67
Stacks Image 69
Then around Angel Hill starting with the Athenaeum:
Stacks Image 100
and then:
The NE bend of Angel Hill is marked by a taller white brick house, and the corner is sensitively rounded".
Stacks Image 94
"Across the road the N side of Angel Hill makes a nice group"
Stacks Image 88
The Angel Hotel:
Stacks Image 78
Angel Corner:
Stacks Image 76
The Council Offices:
Stacks Image 90
A more general view of Angel Hill:
Stacks Image 107
Moving now into the town (most photographs from 2009):
(Former) Leesons. Late Georgian "with unfluted Ionic columns carrying rather ponderous capitals":
Stacks Image 121
(Former) Ridley's "with small glazing panes. The building in which this shop is in is a substantial red brick house of c1700":
Stacks Image 119
Close to the corner of Lower Baxter st. one of the few timber=framed houses, with upper overhang":
Stacks Image 129
(Former) Alliance Assurance:
Stacks Image 135
Hatter St doorways:
Stacks Image 139
35 Churchgate St:
Stacks Image 158
"Cupola House built for the wealthy apothecary Thomas Macro in 1693 and described by Celia Fiennes in 1698. It is three-storeyed, of five bays, plastered and with qoins. Pitched roof and on it the cupola or belvedere, a fashionable feature in the second half of the C17". This was taken in 2009. there was a major fire in 2012. It was restored by 2017. Listing particulars here.
Stacks Image 137
38 Churchgate St:
Stacks Image 171
Door of 38:
Stacks Image 173
Former Penny Bank:
Stacks Image 175
Chequer House:
Stacks Image 195
44 Crown St:
Stacks Image 187
49 Crown St:
Stacks Image 197
10 Crown St:
Stacks Image 189
45 Crown St:
Stacks Image 193
Dog & Partridge:
Stacks Image 191
Theatre Royal (p151):
Stacks Image 163
Barnaby Almshouses:
Stacks Image 165
The next few are in Guildhall St:
The Guildhall:
Stacks Image 222
Guildhall detail:
Stacks Image 220
For more details about this guildhall and about gilds and gildhalls in general, see suffolkguildhalls.com

Then some other buildings:
66-67:
Stacks Image 285
No 74:
Stacks Image 236
No 70:
Stacks Image 238
Nos 81-83:
Stacks Image 234
On to Moyse's Hall of which Pevsner says: "the oldest domestic building of Bury, Norman, of two storeys, with a C19 E wall". Also: "The drastic restoration responsible for several obvious solecisms took place in 1858". Here are two views:
Stacks Image 253
Stacks Image 251
The Corn Exchange (p146):
Stacks Image 257
Two views of the Town Hall (or Market Cross), p146:
Stacks Image 270
Stacks Image 268
And to conclude, the Friends' Meeting House (p146):
Stacks Image 261