Bury St Edmunds houses [266]

Image: © Michael Dibb Taken: 10 Sep 2020

Alvington House, number 112 Northgate Street is now home to a dental practice. Built in white brick in the early or mid 18th century, the house was remodelled and refronted in the 19th century. Some fine original internal features remain. Listed, grade II*, with details at: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1365773 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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