Bury St Edmunds made international news recently as the place Channing Tatum and Jessie J are settling down.
Claudia Schiffer and Matthew Vaughn are also fans, with a Tudor mansion in a nearby village, while celebrities including Angelina Jolie have stayed at The Angel Hotel in the town.
If the leafy Suffolk market town’s good enough for Magic Mike and the like then it’s certainly good enough for us.
Here’s why you should pay it a visit and what to do when you go there.
The food and drink
One surprising highlight of my trip was trying the Taste of East Anglia menu at The Northgate.
It was an intricate introduction to regional delicacies and featured a stunning Suffolk Peer potato and cep terrine, fresh local trout, succulent lamb and Suffolk pinks – super-sweet buttermilk and elderberry macarons.
The menu costs from £45 each – great value for a gastronomic tour of the area.
Pea Porridge, which serves Mediterranean-influenced food, also came highly recommended.
The dining quarter of the Arc Shopping Centre includes chains such as Carluccio’s. Their caprese salad was fresh and colourful.
The Angel Hotel serves up pretty cocktails in a gorgeous, creeper-bedecked Georgian building.
It’s worth visiting The Nutshell pub so you can say you’ve seen the smallest pub in Britain, although the taxidermied animals on the wall may not be for everyone.
The history
Bury’s claims to fame include being home to the Pillar of Salt – the first internally illuminated road sign in the UK.
The sign, which looks like a salt cellar and was built in 1935, stands between the Abbey Gate and the Angel Hotel.
The Abbey Gardens are an ideal place to wander on a sunny day – they contain many beautiful beds, individual walled gardens and the ruins of the Abbey of St Edmund, consecrated in 1095.
From the gardens you’ll get beautiful views of St Edmundsbury Cathedral and its striking Millennium Tower, made of local limestone, lime mortar flint and bricks and completed in 2005.
The Cathedral is worth a visit for its gorgeous stained glass windows, ornate vaulted ceiling and a brilliant Lego installation – the building recreated in brick form.
Bury St Edmunds Tour Guides can provide an extensive history of the town, from its Anglo-Saxon beginnings and the role of martyred King Edmund to the part it played in the Magna Carta and how it became a popular Georgian resort, later hosting everyone from Dickens to Wilde. Bury St Edmunds Tour Guides’ 90-minute walking tour costs £6.
The entertainment
The Apex hosts comedy nights and live music, with Ed Byrne and Shaun Ryder among the acts set to perform there soon. There’s a free art gallery upstairs and a welcoming café downstairs – I can highly recommend the enormous homemade scones.
Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds is unmissable, whether you go to a show or take a tour. Built in 1819 it’s the last Regency Theatre in Britain and amazingly has many of its original features intact.
Tours cost £7.50 while upcoming shows include Austentatious and Jane Eyre.
The markets
An historic part of Bury’s fabric, the main market dates back to before the time of William the Conqueror.
Held in the Buttermarket and Cornhill every Wednesdays and Saturdays, you can pick up everything from locally-made food and drink to jewellery and pottery.
On the second Sunday of the month there’s also a farmers market in The Traverse.
The town is gearing up for its annual Christmas Fayre, from November 21-24, a popular seasonal staple featuring more than 300 stalls. (https://www.burystedmundschristmasfayre.co.uk/)
The chance to unwind
From country walks to spa treats, there are plenty of options for those looking to take things easy.
As well as the Abbey Gardens, Nowton Park is a pleasant place to stroll, with its woodlands, wildflower meadows and arboretum.
Fullers Mill Garden and Lackford Lakes will also appeal to nature-lovers.
The peaceful parkland and manicured gardens of Ickworth House are well worth exploring.
Just down the road from here is Bannatyne’s Bury St Edmunds an attractive neo-Jacobean mansion housing a health club, decent-sized pool, treatment rooms, relaxation rooms and restaurant.
The restaurant menu is wonderfully indulgent and includes cocktails as well as an imaginative vegan menu. Their fishless fish (deep fried artichoke in tempura batter) with hand-cut chips and crushed peas was delicious and filling.
Where to stay
I stayed at The Ickworth Hotel and Bury St Edmunds Travelodge.
The Ickworth is a stunning country house set in 1,800 acres of parkland and part of the Ickworth Estate.
Fans of 90s trivia may delight in the knowledge ‘It girl’ Lady Victoria Hervey lived in Ickworth House.
You’d be daft not to visit the National Trust-owned property, with its 100-foot-high rotunda and Italianate gardens designed by Capability Brown.
The hotel includes a welcoming spa using Elemis products, a sunny conservatory in which to eat breakfast, grand restaurant Frederick’s and beautifully cosy rooms.
I loved the thoughtful touches here, from being able to borrow DVDs from reception to the free National Trust tickets to the neighboring house.
The Ickworth is currently offering a midweek, two-night stay for two adults which includes breakfast and dinner both days from £329.
Bury St Edmunds Travelodge opened this year and was an easy walk into the town centre.
With everything still shiny and new this made for a very pleasant stay, as did the extensive cooked buffet breakfast.
Rooms feature comfy beds and calming blue décor, costing from £29 per night.
Travelodge also recently announced a festive offer across its 568 UK hotels – 500,000 rooms for £29 between November 1 and January 15 2020.
How to get there
From London by train you can travel from Kings Cross via Cambridge to Bury St Edmunds. The journey takes 1hr 45 minutes.
Alternatively you can travel from Liverpool Street via Ipswich. The journey takes between 1hr 30 minutes to 2 hours depending on the service.
If driving from central London, the journey takes 1 hr 45 minutes via the M11.
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source https://metro.co.uk/2019/11/01/bury-st-edmunds-next-weekend-break-11024370/
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