Bury St Edmunds; across the town

A short walk away from the Abbey Gardens and Cathedral area is the Green King Brewery; there has been a brewery on this Westgate Street site since 1799 and opposite the Brew Cafe is the Theatre Royal, a Grade I listed restored Regency theatre. 

We walk down Crown Street past the front of St Mary's Church to reach Angel Hill, where the iconic Abbey Gate is sited.  On Angel Hill are the historic buildings of both The Athenaeum, originally built in the 18th century as Assembly Rooms, and the distinctive facade of The Angel Hotel, where Charles Dickens stayed in 1859 and again in 1861.  There is also a lighthouse-shaped street sign commonly known as the "Pillar of Salt" opposite Norman Tower; built in 1935, the sign is now a listed monument and thought to be the England's first internally illuminated street sign.

We walk up Abbeygate Street to see the Corn Exchange, now a Wetherspoons pub; opposite it on The Traverse is the famous Nutshell pub, reputedly the smallest public house in Britain.  We walk up Guildhall Street to see The Guildhall (a grade 1 listed building which dates back to the 13th century) before doubling back to reach Bury St Edmunds town centre square, The Cornhill.  The Market Cross building here has four decorative sculpted panels representing music and drama; across the square diagonally is Moyse's Hall, built in around 1180 originally as a town house but now a museum. 

We walk down St John's Street to reach the quirky Smoking Monkey antiques shop and the St John the Evangelist Church, before turning off to reach The Old Cannon Brewery, an independent micro-brewery selling traditional English real ale since 1845. Read more