Listed Building: FRIENDS MEETING HOUSE (467338)

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 27/01/2016 This list entry was subject to a Major Amendment on 26/02/2020 TL8564NW 639-1/3/617 BURY ST EDMUNDS, ST JOHN'S STREET (West side), Friends' Meeting House Initially listed 12/07/72 GV II Quaker Meeting House. Built in 1750 with alterations principally of 1791 and 1871, and extended in 2007-2008 to a design by Modece Architects. Quakers were meeting regularly in private houses in Bury St Edmunds from the 1670s. A meeting house is depicted on Thomas Warren’s town maps of 1747 and 1776 on Long Brackland, the present St John’s Street, with a nearby burial ground on Well Street. The present building, known locally as the Quaker Meeting House, was built in 1750, established with its attached burial ground on former tenements. A small room to the rear, used as the women’s business room and latterly as a school room, may have been contemporary. That room had an Elders’ stand until 1973. A gallery and screen were inserted into the main meeting room in 1791. The main (east) front of the timber-framed building was then refaced in brick in 1871; this may have been when its large central Venetian window was inserted. Part of the burial ground to the west of the meeting house was sold in 1874, allowing the construction of the Fennell Memorial Homes (Grade II-listed) to be built by Sarah Bott with an inheritance from another Quaker Friend, Sarah Fennell. In the 1960s the meeting house roof was re-tiled and the gallery enclosed, with toilets and a kitchen installed below. A garden room was built to the south of the meeting house in 1982, superseded by a larger replacement including toilets and a kitchen in 2007-2008 to a design by Modece Architects of Bury St Edmunds. These facilities replaced those of the 1960s, which were removed. The gallery was also re-opened. MATERIALS: the timber-framed meeting house and attached Margaret Kemp Room are both rendered, with white Suffolk brick facing to the principal (east) front of the main meeting room. Both have tile roof coverings. PLAN: the two-storey meeting house is rectangular on plan including, from south to north, a reception area with library space and gallery staircase, opening into the full-height meeting room. The Margaret Kemp Room to the rear is rectangular on plan. A glazed corridor, L-shaped on plan, links the single-storey oblong garden room extension to the meeting house south and west walls. EXTERIOR: the east elevation forms the principal façade of the meeting house, approached through the Quaker burial ground from St John’s Street. Faced in white Suffolk brick laid to Flemish bond with plain pilasters to the corners, it is a symmetrical composition of three bays. The central bay comprises a Venetian window, of which the central light is under a semi-circular brick arch whilst the two narrow outer lights are under flat gauged arches with a moulded cornice. The two upper panes of the outer lights comprise pivoted windows. There is a six-over-nine sash window in each bay to either side of the Venetian window, in plain window openings under flat gauged arches. The remaining elevations are rendered. The north elevation is blind, whilst the west elevation is largely obscured by the Margaret Kemp Room and the glazed link corridor introduced in 2007-2008. The south elevation is obscured at ground level by the glazed corridor and garden room introduced in 2007-2008; the gallery in the upper storey is lit by a centrally-placed window. The Margaret Kemp Room is lit by a sash window in the west and south walls. The meeting house and Margaret Kemp Room roofs are hipped, whilst the link corridor and garden roofs are flat. INTERIOR: the main entrance is at the east end of the glazed corridor and lobby of 2007-2008. The meeting house is divided into three principal spaces. To the south of the main meeting room, a double-leaf door provides access to the library to the left, and gallery staircase to the right. The library is lit by a small fixed single-light internal window. The gallery above, which is open to the main meeting room, has a panelled front carrying a hand-rail. A further double-leaf door, with six-pane door lights in the upper panels, opens through the panelled screen from the library into the full-height main meeting room. There is a low dado and fixed bench to the west wall, whilst the Elders’ stand occupies the full width of the north wall. The stand consists of two ranks of fixed benches with panelled backs. The rear bench is accessed by steps to the west and east ends. The sides of the front bench provide curved handrails to the short flights of steps, whilst its back carries a straight handrail for the upper bench. There is a flat ceiling. The Margaret Kemp Room is accessed through a door in the northern end of the meeting room west wall, and alternatively via the glazed link corridor to the south. It has a timber dado, ramped to the north and south walls. The extension of 2007-2008 includes a garden room, kitchen, toilets, and storage space (not inspected). (BOE: Pevsner N: Radcliffe E: Suffolk: London: 1974-: 146). Listing NGR: TL8520764608.