Bury St Edmunds houses [246]

Image: © Michael Dibb Taken: 7 Sep 2020

Numbers 51 and 52 St John's Street were originally one 16th century timber framed house. Divided into two properties in the early 19th century with shop fronts inserted. Number 51 has a replacement 20th century shop window, number 52 has retained its 19th century shop window. There is a timber framed rear wing to number 52, now of 3 bays but originally with at least one more. Listed, grade II, with details at: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1313422 North of the town centre Northgate Street and St John’s Street run towards the site of Northgate and the railway station and both streets have many older buildings. In between these two streets is a number of streets irregularly laid out (compared to the medieval grid of the town centre) containing mostly houses and buildings from the 19th century. 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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