Bury St Edmunds buildings [152]

Image: © Michael Dibb Taken: 13 Sep 2020

The entrance to Langton House, number 22 Hatter Street, is flanked by two shops, numbers 22A and 22B. Built in the 17th century, timber framed and refronted in white brick in the early 19th century, the house, once a girls boarding school, is now divided into flats. The two shop fronts are 20th century. Listed, grade II, with details at: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1022535 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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