Bury St Edmunds buildings [166]

Image: © Michael Dibb Taken: 9 Sep 2020

Built as a house, later a public house (The Olde White Hart), now The Abbey Hotel. Number 35 Southgate Street has a 15th century core, additions and alterations from the 16th century with a 19th century front and a rear extension of the same date. Timber framed and stuccoed with a painted brick front. The hotel is adjacent to the site of the former Chapel of St Botolph. Several phases of alterations have left a complex interior. Listed, grade II, with details at: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1272119 Sparhawk Street runs from Honey Hill via the open space of St Mary’s Square to Southgate Street which leads to Southgate Green, the site of the town’s Southgate and where St Petronella’s Hospital was located, established in the 12th century for the treatment of female lepers. The area is rich in history and has a great variety of buildings. 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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