1 AND 2A, WHITING STREET, 56, ABBEYGATE STREET

Details

BURY ST EDMUNDS

TL8564SW ABBEYGATE STREET
639-1/14/152 (South side)
07/08/52 No.56

GV II*

Includes: Nos.1 AND 2A WHITING STREET.
Shop. Late C15, C16 and C17, refronted in the early C19.
Timber-framed, rendered and lined; slate roof with a plain
parapet and paired mutules to the heavy moulded cornice.
EXTERIOR: 3 storeys and cellars; on a corner site with a
return front to Whiting Street. L-shaped plan with a rear
range running behind No.55 Abbeygate Street (qv). On the
Abbeygate Street frontage 2 windows to each storey, 12-pane
sashes to the 1st storey and 9-pane to the 2nd storey, all in
heavy cased frames. Moulded fascia to the shop front which
continues round into Whiting Street: shop windows with
vertical glazing-bars.
Along the Whiting Street frontage there is a drop in the level
of the ground and first storey windows: 5 window range, sashes
in cased frames, some with glazing-bars. 7 C20 large-paned
sash windows to the ground storey. A wide doorway with fluted
columns, plain architrave and dentil frieze has C20 columns of
Ashburton marble behind.
INTERIOR: extensive cellars, medieval below the Whiting Street
range, where their walls are of flint, coursed with lines of
tiles, and a heavy chamfered main ceiling-beam is supported on
piers of reused Abbey stone with the joists lodged above it. A
later cellar below the rear range is lined with coursed
limestone blocks, and a C19 brick-lined section links the 2.
Heavy timbers exposed on the ground storey show that the
building has at least 4 stages of development, with the oldest
part the 4 bays at the south end of the Whiting Street range.
These originally formed a single-ended Wealden house with a
2-bay open hall linked to a jettied service bay by a wide
cross-entry.
Empty mortices in the central beam show that the service bay
was divided into 2; the cross-beam at the lower end of the
hall has mortices for a former screen. The inserted ceiling in
the former hall was jettied along the street and has multiple
roll-mouldings on the timbers; the main cross-beams have an
ornate carved boss at their intersection in which a circle of
flowers is enclosed by a foliated surround. Associated with
this range, and probably contemporary with it, is a 2-storey
2-bay range which extended behind the hall; a short gap
between the 2 frames formerly containing a chimney-stack. This


range has a plain crown-post roof with the crown-posts braced
downwards to the tie-beams and upwards to the collar-purlin.
A further 2-bay 2-storey range was added to the east with very
little difference of date between: this also has a crown-post
roof, braced to the collar-purlin only. To the north of the
Wealden section a long single-bay room was added, also
jettied, with flat unchamfered heavy joists and main beams
with a delicate cresting ornament enclosed by roll-mouldings.
Further north again, the 2 corner bays have plain heavy joists
and chamfered main beams with a long dragon-beam supported by
a corner-post. On its 2 external faces are carved the
slightly-mutilated figures of a man and woman in early C16
costume. The outer studding is missing, but mortices indicate
the position of doors and windows for a shop. Within the angle
of the front and rear is a restored Jacobean stair with carved
and pierced splat balusters and moulded handrails; the ornate
newel-posts have open lantern finials. The roof over the
Whiting Street range has been replaced.
Nos 1 and 2A Whiting Street were listed on 120772.
(BOE: Pevsner N: Radcliffe E: Suffolk: London: 1974-: 149).

Listing NGR: TL8531664173

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

466614

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Suffolk, (1974), 149

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.