28 AND 28A, ABBEYGATE STREET

Details

BURY ST EDMUNDS

TL8564SW ABBEYGATE STREET 639-1/14/137 (North side) 12/07/72 Nos.28 AND 28A

GV II*

2 shops with storage rooms above, formerly a house and shop. Early C16 and early C17. Timber-framed and roughcast; twin gables to street with plain late C20 bargeboards; plaintiles. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys and cellar to front; 3 storeys and attic to rear. 2 windows to both upper storeys: sashes with a single vertical glazing-bar to lights in cased frames. 2 C20 shop fronts. INTERIOR: cellar not readily accessible. Shop interiors fully modernised. The upper storeys are all approached from No.28A. The building consists of 2 parallel ranges at right angles to the street, each with 2 rooms to a storey and an internal chimney-stack. Each of the first storey front rooms had an oriel window flanked by smaller side windows which still retain moulded mullions. Recent stripping of wallpaper has uncovered extensive remains of early C17 painted decoration in both 1st storey front rooms and the front attic room which originally covered the whole walls. On the 1st storey, there are only the main components of the frame along the east wall, with tension braces and a central post with arched braces; the decoration covers all these timbers, as well as the wall behind them, which is the outer surface of the west wall of No.29. The motifs in each room are similar but not identical, with intersecting repetitive strapwork-type designs containing formalised flowers and foliage. In the east room, fragments of a frieze with a large leaf pattern. The colours are mainly green, red and white on a black background and are still very strong, probably because they were covered at an early stage. In the west room the remains of a late C17 plaster frieze with raised ornate panels, which was laid over the paintings, indicates that there was a fairly rapid change in the style of decoration there. To the rear of the east chimney-stack is a small much altered room. To the rear of the western stack is a small room with an unusual heavily-moulded late C15/early C16 ceiling in which the main cross-beams are set diagonally; the plaster between has added decoration of c1600 with Tudor roses and acanthus leaves in relief. On the top storey, some exposed studding and a braced central post which supports the valley of the front gables. Both halves of the attic formed one large room which

is also decorated, in a similar but rougher style than in the 2 rooms below, with designs in black and white on a pink background, more fragmentary than on the 1st storey. In the eastern half, a small brick fireplace with rounded back and timber lintel has the remains of old render over the bricks, coloured pink and lined to simulate stone. Below the pink colouring is an older grey surface with the bricks penny struck. In the western half, an early C19 raised cast-iron grate with fluted decoration was inserted when the attic was divided into 2 rooms. The rear attic on the west has a tie-beam cut to allow access, and the ceiling of the top storey room, which is a later insertion, is set below wallplate level in the attic, leaving a short section of heavy studding visible along the side walls. Crown-post roof, the post within the partition wall braced to the collar-purlin; collars and rafters concealed. A small-paned sash window is set above the tie-beam in the rear gable, and in the soffit below the tie-beam is the rebate for an original window.

Listing NGR: TL8546864236

Legacy

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Legacy System number:

466593

Legacy System:

LBS

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