Bury St Edmunds buildings [143]

Image: © Michael Dibb Taken: 13 Sep 2020

This painted complex of buildings consists of number 4 Hatter Street and Abbeygate Cinema. Number 4 is an early 19th century house which became a shop with living accommodation above in painted brick. The original entrance to the house was to the right in the south end which breaks forward slightly but this is now part of the cinema. Listed, grade II, with details at: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1246712 The cinema opened in 1924 and has undergone a number of changes of both ownership and of names. Currently operating with 3 screens. There is much history and detail at: http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/24294 Hatter Street is the widest of the north-south streets within the medieval grid and is a richly varied historic street architecturally. The buildings are mostly residential but with some in commercial use, their ages and materials are diverse and as rich as their uses. Bury St Edmunds is a market town which is the cultural and retail centre for West Suffolk and is known for brewing (Greene King) and sugar (British Sugar). There is scattered evidence of earlier activity but essentially Bury St Edmunds began as one of the royal boroughs of the Saxons and a monastery was founded which became the burial place of King Edmund. A new Benedictine abbey was built in 1020 which became rich and powerful and the town was laid out on a grid pattern by Abbot Baldwin. After the dissolution the abbey became ruinous. A new church, later the cathedral, was begun in the early 16th century.

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