Bury St Edmunds buildings [202]

Image: © Michael Dibb Taken: 10 Sep 2020

Now known as St Michael's Close, this building was the King Edward VI Grammar School from 1664 to 1883 and then a girls' boarding school until 1939. Converted into flats circa 1945. The older part (furthest from the camera) is 17th century, the newer part is 18th century. The building is timber framed and stuccoed in panels. There were alterations and extensions in the 19th century. There is another view of the building at Image Listed, grade II*, with details at: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1022633 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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