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Bury St Edmunds Suffolk Hotel
Bury St Edmunds Suffolk Hotel
also traded as le Greyhounde
West, 52.24505,0.71332
closed 1996
opened 16th century
35 to 38 Buttermarket
grid reference TL 853 642
It's shown (though not named) on this old OS map from about the end of the 19th century. interactive map
A former Commercial & Family Hotel and posting house, the current building dates from 1833, when it was rebuilt and changed its name from the Greyhound to the Suffolk Hotel. The original Greyhound building dated back to at least the 16th century.
It is sometimes claimed that the nearby abbey owned the house as early as 1295 and although the precise date may be open to dispute, there is no gainsaying the fact that it was owned by the monks, for at the Dissolution in 1539 they surrendered the property to the Crown. It was subsequently leased at a yearly rental of £5 6s 8d to Thomas Brown, who combined his trade of mercer to that of innkeeper."Inns and Inn Signs of Norfolk and Suffolk", Alfred Hedges
The larger coaching entrance was blocked up before 1880s (see early pictures). The horse drawn coaches on the right then took the hotel guests to and from the railway station.
In 1912 it is also described as having a motor garage & pits on the premises.
The building is now used as retail premises.
Suffolk Shades was located to rear of premises for some time in more recent times.
Sadly one person now said to haunt the building is a woman, in life a doctor, who committed suicide here in 1981 and is claimed to still have a lasting presence in room number 63!
Gallery
Historical interest
Owner/operator: Forte
Closed December 1996, prospective retail premises.CAMRA's 1997 Suffolk Real Ale Guide
Originally called the Greyhound and housed in an earlier building dating back to about 1539.
The Greyhound in the Buttermarket in Bury St Edmunds is now kept by Mr Thomas Reynolds who lately kept the Three Tuns in the Old Town
(31 July edition confirmed previous occupier of the Greyhound as Mr William Adams).Ipswich Journal, 3 July 1742***
To be lett, the Greyhound Inn in Bury St Edmunds…
Landlords
(Most pub, location & historic details collated by Nigel, Tony or Keith - original sources are credited)
(1861 census information from Malcolm Fairley)
(** historic newspaper information from Stuart Ansell)
(*** historic newspaper information from Bob Mitchell)
(**** report reproduced with kind permission from Foxearth & District Local History Society)
Old OS map reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland.