Bury St Edmunds town centre named in top five best high streets in the UK by national newspaper
Bury St Edmunds has been named in a list of best high streets in the country.
The Suffolk market town came fourth in the list of 20 Best High Streets in the UK, in the list compiled by the Daily Telegraph.
Lavenham in Suffolk came in at number 17.
The newspaper says two years of pandemic restrictions, the rise of working from home, soaring energy prices, online retail and rising business rates and corporation tax have created the perfect storm for high streets.
It says the typical ‘21st-century parade’ now consists of a Starbucks, a Greggs, a Specsavers and a sorry assortment of bookmakers, phone repair shops and pound stores.
But it adds there are ‘beacons of light piercing the gloom: thriving high streets in handsome towns that retain a healthy selection of quirky and independent businesses, giving shoppers a fine reason to escape the tyranny of Amazon’.
It describes Bury St Edmunds as a ‘fantasy Suffolk market town of Georgian squares, wonky medieval walls and prettily lit shop fronts that entice you like well-wrapped gifts’.
It says the neo-Gothic St Edmundsbury Cathedral ‘lifts moods’ not only with glimpses of its kaleidoscope-like, fan-vaulted ceiling, but with festive events from wreath-making workshops, Christmas markets, concerts and candlelit parades.
Over at the Theatre Royal, Britain’s last-surviving Regency playhouse, a performance or panto comes with a shot of nostalgia.
The article adds: “Post-shop, bundle up for a crisp walk through the Abbey Gardens, hugging the banks of the River Lark. Here among the herb and water gardens, you’ll find the enigmatic ruins of a once-splendid Benedictine abbey and impressively intact medieval ruins like the Great Gate and gargoyle-encrusted Norman Tower.”
For shopping, it implores shoppers to explore the backstreets and ‘you’ll find gifts that go way beyond bog-standard stocking fillers’.
On St John’s Street, it suggests poping into Pocket Watch and Petticoats for vintage clothing and old-fashioned service to match, and Vinyl Hunter for one-off records.
It adds: “Closer to the cathedral, find moody Suffolk landscapes to grace a mantlepiece in the Hunter Gallery on Angel Hill, and a tasteful array of gifts at The Parsley Pot on Abbeygate Street.”
For food and drink, it advises people to head to Hatter Street for artisan cheeses at The Cheese Hole, or sip an espresso while choosing the ‘perfect bottle of wine’ at Vino Gusto, adding that Bury’s twice weekly market is a feast of seasonal local produce – fruit and veg, fish and meat, pickles, chutneys and honey.
To stay over, it recommends The Angel, an ivy-swaddled boutique stunner that ‘swirls in history and romance’.
Otherwise, “snag a table at slickly intimate Lark for hyper-local food with a Mediterranean twist in a former bus shelter. Or book well ahead for Michelin-starred, gorgeously rustic Pea Porridge for inventive Moorish-inspired cooking that you’ll be raving about long after the tinsel comes down”.
For a pint it recommends The Nutshell, a ‘cheery, picture-plastered Victorian boozer’ that is Britain’s smallest pub according to Guinness.
At number 17, it says the medieval wool town Lavenham, with its ‘high street parade of wonky, half-timbered, pastel-painted Tudor houses, is ridiculously lovely at any time of year’.
It praises the independent shops trading in everything from antiques to pottery, vintage teddy bears to bespoke jewellery.
Other towns and cities in the top 10 include.
1. Shrewsbury, Shropshire
2. Norwich, Norfolk
3. Belper, Derbyshire
4. Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
5. Edinburgh, Scotland
6. Stamford, Lincolnshire
7. Chester, Cheshire
8. Totnes, Devon
9. Crickhowell, Wales
10. St Ives, Cornwall