Building record FML 198 - The Old Tavern House, 29 Fore Street

The Old Tavern House was recorded on the tithe survey of 1842 as the Waggon and Horses Inn which formed part of the extensive portfolio belonging to the Ipswich-based brewer John Cobbold. Its tenant was Frances Bilney who was listed by White’s Suffolk Directory for 1844 as both a landlord and butcher. The building accordingly consists of a domestic house with a mid-19th century brick facade added to a 16th century timber-framed structure (probably by Cobbold), and a large adjoining 19th century outbuilding on the street to the right which contained a butcher’s shop and slaughterhouse. Innkeepers often doubled as butchers, partly as their premises typically included spacious yards and partly because they had a ready market for meat, but urban slaughterhouses are now rare survivals in anything resembling their original form. This example was open to its roof in the manner of a barn and preserves an original louver and latticed door along with hooks and rails for hoisting, butchering and hanging carcases. The 16th century structure consists of two-bays at right-angles to the street and probably formed the cross-wing of a demolished hall. An intact diamond-mullion window survives in the rear bay, and a 17th century inserted chimney suggests it was later converted into a small tenement in its own right. A range of brick sheds which includes a bake-house had already been added to the rear by 1842 forming a courtyard in conjunction with a late-19th century boarded shed that probably housed cattle. Given the variety of its roof structures, uniformly pantiled on a conspicuous corner site, and the highly distinctive appearance of the slaughterhouse, the property makes a major contribution to the historic character of the street (S1).