Description

BURY ST EDMUNDS

TL8564SW RISBYGATE STREET
639-1/7/535 (North side)
07/08/52 Nos.93 AND 95
(Formerly Listed as:
RISBYGATE STREET
Nos.93-95 (Consecutive))

GV II*

House, previously divided into 3, then 2; now a shop and
offices. C14 and C16 interior; early C19 front. Timber-framed
and jettied, apart from a single unjettied bay at the east
end. Render to the upper storey, white brick to the ground
storey. Plaintiled roof. An internal chimney-stack has a
square shaft on a rectangular red brick base. A rear wing at
the west end.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys and cellar. 6 windows to the upper storey:
16-pane sashes in flush cased frames. 5 windows to the ground
storey, irregularly spaced: 16-pane sashes in plain reveals;
flat cement arches have vermiculated keystones and stub
brackets. Similar flat arches to the 2 doors, which have plain
wood surrounds and rectangular fanlights. At No.95 an original
doorway with a flower carved in each spandrel of the doorhead
remains within the later door case. A 2-storey gabled rear
wing on the north west and a rear range, parallel to the
front, with a row of 3 gables.
INTERIOR: apart from the roofs, most of the original
high-quality framing was exposed during recent restoration.
The range consisted initially of 2 separate houses, merged
into one by the late C16. On the west, a 2-bay early-C16 front
range was attached to and partly replaced a mid-C14 house set
at right angles to the street.
2 storied rear bays of this C14 house survive but were
seriously damaged by fire in the 1980s so that most of the
features by which it could be closely dated have either
disappeared or are now concealed. These included a doorway
with a pointed arch leading from the rear yard into what
appeared to be a kitchen, an impression further borne out by
the use of original flint walling, less subject than timber to
fire risk, on the ground storey of this range.
The ground storey ceiling has heavy closely-set unchamfered
joists and there are surviving diamond mullioned windows to
each storey. An open hall associated with this storied end was
replaced in the C16 by the ground storey of the northern bay
of the front: this has tension bracing in the gable-end wall,
double ogee-moulding to main beams and joists and a C18/early

C19 end stack built of reused Tudor brick. A cross-entry and
shop were in the adjoining front bay.
On the 1st storey the room over the hall was (and still is)
fully partitioned off from the adjoining upper room,
suggesting an irregular initial division of this part of the
building into 2. On the east was a separate early C16 house,
well framed in a similar style, of which 2 bays and the
remains of a cross-entry survive. It was initially divided
into 2 one-bay rooms on each storey, heated by chimney-stacks
on the rear wall. By the late C16, when the 2 houses were
combined, an internal chimney-stack with 2 back-to-back
hearths was inserted into the western bay. This stack has
plain timber lintels to the hearths and a liberal admixture of
reused stone blocks in the jambs and sides.
Along the front wall the very deep sills of large oriel
windows survive and there is evidence for other oriels on the
upper storey as well as the remains of secondary windows with
ovolo-moulded mullions. At the same time a gallery which
contained a stair was added against the rear wall: this has
now been incorporated into the front range.
(Aitkens P: Plans & Annotated Drawings made during
Restoration: 1987-).

Listing NGR: TL8501564490

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17545560

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings